More than 200 residents from different groups gathered yesterday Monday at the Pineda de Mar City Hall (Maresme), coinciding with the January plenary session, to protest against the increase in the IBI, which this year is 25%. It is the municipality with more than 20,000 inhabitants that increases this tax the most in Catalonia.
The spokesperson for the citizen group Estel Groc, Raimon Miranda, affirms that this is an "unfair" increase that should be able to be "reconsidered", despite the fact that the tax ordinances are already in force - they were approved in October. However, the protesters wanted to give a "wake-up call" to the municipal government in the face of a situation that, they warn, could more seriously affect the most vulnerable groups.
Already at the time, the municipal government framed this increase in a "general" context of the increase in fiscal pressure in Catalonia. The maintenance of the quality of services and the freezing of the IBI in the last seven years are the main arguments to now justify this increase.
However, the mobilized neighbors consider it an "excuse" and ask that, as is the case in other municipalities, this increase be done "gradually" so that the impact on family economies is not "all at once." Miranda recalls that there is currently a "social emergency" situation and that there are "many people who find it difficult to make ends meet."
The protest was noisy at the doors of City Hall, with shouts against the municipal government and its mayor, Xavier Amor. The protesters called the council's new fiscal policy "a robbery." With the beginning of the plenary session, the protest moved inside the municipal offices, where there were some moments of tension.
Although there was no item related to taxes on the agenda, during the turn of control of the municipal government by the political parties, residents have asked to intervene in the session, after some groups raised questions related to the neighborhood mobilization.
The mayor, Xavier Amor, recalled that the Municipal Organic Regulations (ROM) do not allow public intervention. Forced by the groups' questions, Amor ended up justifying again the need to increase the IBI this year and recalled that the tax ordinances were approved three months ago with the only opposing vote from Junts.
