The security forces have evicted this Monday morning the occupied block of numbers 13 and 15 of ronda Ferran Puig of Girona, in a joint operation of Mossos d'Esquadra and Girona Municipal Police. The operation has started from ten o'clock, when the agents have begun to access the different doors of the building to remove all the occupants.
During the intervention, at least ten police vehicles have occupied one of the traffic lanes of the Ferran Puig ring road. The eviction has been executed globally and simultaneously, without being limited to specific flats, and afterwards several accesses have been provisionally boarded up to prevent new entries.
Eviction for imminent risk
The mayor of Girona, Lluc Salellas, has attributed the action to an emergency situation and an imminent risk in terms of safety and health. Municipal and Firefighters' reports warned of a very high risk to the health and life of the block's inhabitants and also to the surrounding neighborhood.
The situation worsened last Friday, when one of the properties on the third floor had to be cordoned off after a fire. As a result of that fire, some of the apartments had already been left empty.
A building empty for decades and occupied since the summer
The property had been in disuse for about forty years and has about forty apartments. All of them were occupied in the summer of 2024. Very different profiles coexisted in the building. Some people entered, according to a testimony, out of necessity, while others used it as a refuge or as a place of passage after committing alleged criminal acts.
The deputy mayor and councilor for Ecological Transition and Urban Area, Sergi Font, has explained that in the block there were three types of profiles. Among them, he has placed vulnerable families.
"On one hand, that of vulnerable families" - Sergi Font, City Council of Girona
The City Council has identified three families in this situation and plans to give them more personalized attention to find a solution. Font has pointed out that these are families who have not had the option of accessing conventional housing and has advanced that they will be offered a temporary housing alternative. He has also indicated that among the occupants there were people in the process of regularization and others linked to alleged criminal acts.
The councilor has added that in the block there was a lot of mobility and that some people who were there last week no longer remained in the building this Monday.
Cleaning, disinfection and total boarding up
The Councillor for Proximity Urban Planning, Lluís Martí, has lamented that the property has been very affected inside by the occupations and by the way of life that was developed within. The next actions include a cleaning, a comprehensive disinfection and works to board up absolutely all openings that allow new occupations.
Martí has specified that these tasks correspond to the property, although the City Council has intervened subsidiarily to accelerate the process. One part of the property had already given authorization and was awaiting the other. The municipal forecast is to complete the rest of the actions throughout this week.
The same councilor has regretted that Girona and other cities have to face situations derived from occupations and crime, and has maintained that the City Council has tried to act with the maximum possible speed. He has also criticized that, in his opinion, from the judicial point of view, situations that he considers simple to address are not resolved quickly.
A planned demolition, but not immediate
Regarding the future of the building, Martí has recalled that the General Plan approved in 2002 leaves the property outside legality for being too close to the train tracks. The forecast is that the block will end up being demolished and that in its place another building adapted to a different urban reality will be erected, although he has made clear that that demolition will not be imminent.
Meanwhile, the immediate objective of the council is to secure the property, clean up its interior and prevent it from being occupied again after an eviction that has been carried out all at once in the entire block.