2 weeks Ago By Gerard Pruna
With a last-minute U-turn, Jaume Collboni's government has salvaged a package of nominal grants worth €26.8 million that had briefly been hanging in the balance. During the debate in the Barcelona City Council plenary session, the Fourth Deputy Mayor for Economy, Jordi Valls, agreed to withdraw the €250,000 grant planned for Next Business Exhibition, the organization that organizes the real estate fair The District.
With this withdrawal, the municipal government managed to secure the support of Barcelona en Comú, which, together with ERC, finally allowed for the approval of the subsidy package. The debate over this package of 321 nominal grants to organizations is the result of the lack of new budgets. With the extension, the city council was required to separately implement this aid package—some minor and some reaching hundreds of thousands of euros—which affects a wide variety of entities, such as the Red Cross, neighborhood associations, CIDOB, and the main unions.
It also includes contributions from the City Council to bodies such as the Municipal Market Institute (IMMB) and the payment of dues to entities such as the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia (FMC). In her first intervention during the debate, the spokesperson for Barcelona en Común in the city council, Gemma Tarafa, warned Valls that the aid package included "unacceptable subsidies" such as that for The District. "If you want our votes, withdraw it," she retorted.
Earlier, Junts councilor Damià Calvet had already announced his group's opposing vote, lamenting the lack of negotiation on the part of the municipal government, which he criticized for acting "as if it had an absolute majority." These two interventions, coupled with the opposing votes of the PP and Vox, left the municipal government with only the vote in favor of Esquerra. An insufficient majority that threatened to demolish the aid package.
Faced with this scenario, Valls has agreed to withdraw the €250,000 aid planned for The District. A gesture that the Commons have appreciated and has ultimately facilitated the approval of the subsidies, thus avoiding another defeat in the plenary session. For three years, Barcelona has hosted The District trade fair, which presents itself as "the leading international professional event where real estate listings are accelerated, new opportunities are discovered, and business is boosted.
" Its celebration has always been accompanied by protests from anti-speculation groups, who believe that in the midst of the housing crisis, the city should not host an event like this. Awaiting aid for the Circuit This package of nominal grants no longer included a planned €2.5 million contribution to the Circuit de Catalunya, as was made following an agreement between the City Council and the Circuit last year.
This aid, which the municipal government wants to repeat and which the Comuneros (Communal Council) had also targeted, will have to be debated in a plenary session once a new agreement between the council and the Circuit has been reached..
