The Girona City Council, controlled by the CUP, tightens the procedures for accessing the municipal register

The Girona City Council, controlled by the CUP, has tightened the procedures for accessing the municipal register, which has meant that at least 150 vulnerable people have been excluded from this right, the gateway to social services, health, and education. This has been confirmed by the local ombudsman and various organizations, which have criticized the change in criteria imposed by the team of the anti-capitalist and pro-independence mayor, Lluc Salellas. Marta Alsina, a lawyer and ombudsman for the citizens of Girona, has received 42 complaints about the tightening of the procedures for registering, which has affected 1,350 cases pending resolution. The changes that have had the greatest impact relate to the social register: the council no longer allows people to register at alternative addresses such as La Sopa, a shelter and social services center. Social organizations and the citizen advocate claim to have evidence of stricter criteria for the social register since the summer, which leaves many people helpless, something that the councilor for Citizen Services, Queralt Vila, denies. Complaints from residents have also reached social organizations, which criticize that there is “a problem of slowness in resolving issues and neglect of the most vulnerable people, with the risk of violating fundamental rights.” These entities are asking the council to rectify the situation, but the council denies the allegations: it admits that there is a delay in processing (which it attributes to unexpected sick leave), but denies that it is failing to guarantee the social register. The CUP government admits, however, that it is taking extreme precautions and checks to prevent cases of fraud. The organizations and the ombudswoman reply that they have evidence of the tightening of criteria for the social register since after the summer. Everyone who lives in a municipality must register, and the city council has an obligation to register them, as the register is understood to be a census. “The register cannot be used to hinder fundamental rights,” Alsina points out, while the organizations regret that the control is focused “on certain groups.” The most problematic cases, says Alsina, are those of people who are squatting in homes; they are checked by social services or the police, and if their actual residence in the place is confirmed, they are allowed to register. There are also cases of people living on the streets; users of the La Sopa center are registered, but those who are not users and cannot prove a fixed address are no longer registered. Another case is that of people who sublet rooms; although they are not allowed to register there, if the police confirm that they live there, they are registered. The problem, according to organizations and the ombudswoman, is that “in many cases, the police come and turn away people who do not want to have problems with the police or with their landlords, and there is a risk that they will stop registering even though they live in the city.” They have also found that minors who were living in apartments owned by organizations and reached the age of majority are no longer registering at La Sopa, even though they were still registered at these apartments despite no longer living there. Now they are not registered either in the flats or at La Sopa. “They will be left without registration despite living in Girona without a fixed address and will have problems in the future proving their roots,” says Núria Palomar, spokesperson for the NGO Solidarity Coordinator. Both Palomar, representing the organizations, and Alsina argue that “perhaps the way it was done until now was not the best solution, but it was legal,” and they urgently call for “everyone to sit down and find solutions for the most vulnerable because many people are being left helpless.” In this regard, Palomar argues that, despite the fact that one of the arguments for the change made by the council has been the “fight against mafias,” there are cases of “desperate people who are paying up to 900 euros to those who facilitate their registration.” He regrets that Junts is using the register “as an electoral weapon” and maintains that the council is not lying, only telling partial truths. For her part, the councilor acknowledges a certain slowness, which she attributes specifically to sick leave, and that, on the advice of the municipal secretary, there has been a change in terms of “trying to take extreme precautions and checks to prevent fraud in the municipal register,” but she insists that “this applies to all types of fraud, including schooling.” And although she denies that the criteria have been tightened, she does point out that “perhaps in the most vulnerable cases, we need to be better at supporting them.” “We are trying to be more protective so that everyone who lives in Girona can register and be included in the census, wherever they live, whether in a room or under a bridge, but without leaving room for mafias,” she explains. Previously, in cases that did not raise any doubts, the ordinary registers, registration was instantaneous and a slip was issued. Now, in all cases, there is a procedure, an official reviews the information provided and must issue a report. Vila assures that when all the staff are working, it will be resolved in a week. Now it takes a little longer, although by law it can take up to three months. According to the organizations, this delay undermines the right to education, access to public health care, regularization, family reunification, and residence permits, although Vila assures that in cases of medical or educational urgency, the issue is resolved within days. Although the City Council denies that new criteria are being applied for registration, and says that it has simply applied the necessary procedures, for Alsina “there has been a change in criteria and procedures are being applied that in practice are obstacles to registration.” He therefore calls for immediate rectification and for solutions to be sought for the various cases detected. “If the council wants to reflect reality,” says Palomar, “it should analyze its own data, which estimates that 20,000 people were living in Girona in 2025 without being registered.”