First working meeting between the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni. The two socialist leaders have committed to substantially increasing the tourist tax on cruise ships that stop for less than 12 hours in Barcelona. Although they have avoided giving precise figures (the new rate will have to be approved in the law accompanying the Catalan budgets), the municipal intention is for it to be higher than the current 4 euros per person per day.
As Collboni explained at the end of the meeting, Barcelona receives 1.6 million short-stay cruise tourists who pass through the city and that the growth prospects “are not acceptable”, since the city gives priority to cruises that have the Catalan capital as a base port and not a transit port. The Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, said that the Executive wants to open a “reflection” on tourism taxation in the framework of the next budget negotiation.
After 14 years without the PSC having control of both sides of the Plaza Sant Jaume in Barcelona, where the Palau de la Generalitat and the City Hall are located, the meeting between Illa and Collboni made visible the large shares of power that the socialists have achieved after the last Catalan and municipal elections. Sharing the political colour, a priori, could help accelerate key policies in the city, such as housing.
This is what happened with the agreement for new protected apartments that the City Council and the Generalitat, led by Pere Aragonès, had signed last season and that failed. Among the 1,700 social housing units that are planned to be built on land donated by the municipality, Illa has committed to Incasòl, the Catalan land institute, developing the project for the construction of 637 apartments spread over eleven plots.
The mayor also handed over to the president 1,900 additional social apartments on land ceded by the Consortium of the Free Zone of Barcelona (an institution that brings together several administrations and is the largest owner of land in the Catalan capital), but whose main promoter should be the State in addition to Incasòl.
In terms of security, the two leaders agreed to resume joint investigations between the Guàrdia Urbana and the Mossos d’Esquadra, as announced by Dalmau. The agreement will be formalized on September 18 in another meeting between Collboni and the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, during which specific measures against crime and drug trafficking will be discussed.
