The sexual violence exerted by minors against minors "in extremely complex neighborhoods of Badalona", and especially in Sant Roc, have brought back a dead person. The Generalitat and the City Council of this city agreed yesterday to reactivate an old agreement that "was in the process of being dissolved and that in fact had been inoperative for years."
The Minister of Social Rights, Carles Campuzano, and the Mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, yesterday recognized "the political differences" that separate them, but also what unites them: "And Badalona occupies us and worries us." The minister maintains that "the more community action, the less inequalities." Where? In the job market, education and housing, three of the problems in these neighborhoods.
The Badalona Sud Consortium was created precisely for this purpose. The Generalitat and the Badalona City Council created this entity in 2006 to improve "the complex and singular reality" of neighborhoods such as Congrés, Remei, La Mora, Artigues and, especially, Sant Roc. These were long-term investments and actions to improve and reinforce existing services.
More than fifteen years later, however, investments were paralyzed and the Badalona Sud project was shut down. The reality uncovered by the sexual assaults committed by minors in Sant Roc has shown the need to revitalize that pact, when it was about to become extinct. This was recognized by Minister Campuzano and Mayor Albiol.
Neither one nor the other, however, specified the investments that the regional and municipal administration will inject so that what failed before is now a success. The consortiums, they said, are not "a magic potion", but offer tools for joint action, improve neighborhood coexistence and detect cases of vulnerability not identified so far by social services. There are already examples of success, such as the Mine Consortium in Sant Adrià de Besòs. Xavier García Albiol insisted that the consortium must have the "active participation" of various departments of the Generalitat, such as those in charge of education, social policies, housing and urban planning, among others. "If they're not all there, it won't work," concluded the mayor, who a few days ago proposed lowering the criminal age to prevent some sexual offenders like those from Sant Roc from being unimputable.
This issue was not addressed at yesterday's meeting, although "situations that scandalize us all, such as sexual violence by minors against minors" were present, in the words of Carles Campuzano. Although he wanted to separate this fact from the recent sexual assaults in Sant Roc, the Minister of Social Rights also announced the implementation in other cities of initiatives such as Barnahus, which combats sexual violence against minors and which "has given such good results in Tarragona". . This project will be extended to twelve more municipalities in Catalonia, including Badalona.
