PSOE, PP, Vox and Cs refuse to make the Vía Laietana Police Station a memory center

Unidas Podemos does support the ERC initiative, which accuses the socialists of "being afraid of the Police"

MADRID, 15 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PSOE has coincided this Wednesday in Congress with PP, Vox and Ciudadanos expressing its rejection of the ERC proposal that the headquarters of the Barcelona Police Headquarters, located at Vía Laietana 43, become a memory center of the Francoist repression managed by the Generalitat. In contrast, Unidas Podemos has distanced itself from its coalition partner by supporting this demand, just as Junts, PDeCAT and the PNV have done.

Esquerra has defended this non-legal proposal in the Interior Commission of Congress after last week the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, affirmed in the Senate that this police station has already been resignified and that it will continue to house the National Police Headquarters .

The spokesperson for the Interior ERC, María Carvalho, has reproached the PSOE for supporting a similar initiative in 2017 and now, when "they are in the Government and they have to do things" they do not dare to support it, as she has said, because "it terrifies them police".

In this sense, he has warned the Socialists that "the right wing smells their fear" and that their inaction on matters like this means "more abstention, more disaffection and more red carpet for their blues and greens", in reference to PP and Vox.

The reply came from the socialist Rafael José Vélez, who has reiterated Bolaños's arguments to ensure that what was the headquarters of the Political-Social Brigade and symbol "of the worst Francoist repression" has already been resignified because men and women work there for the safety of all and in accordance with the Constitution and democratic values.

After pointing out that the Interior "does not contemplate" the transfer of the Higher Police Headquarters for "operational reasons", he snapped at Carvalho: "The only citizens who have to be afraid of the Police are criminals, take good note."

On the contrary, on behalf of Unidas Podemos, the deputy of En Comu, Joan Mena, has advanced his support for the request of the Republicans, emphasizing that "memory is the best act of resistance against the anti-democratic threats that are still present".

They have also supported the text the PDeCAT, whose deputy Genís Boadella, has recalled that in Barcelona there are other "magnificent police stations", and Josep Pagès, from Junts, for whom converting this building is "for Justice" and that is what the vast majority of the Catalan capital. From the PNV, Mikel Legarda, has anticipated that they will vote yes, as they did in 2017.

The PP, Ciudadanos and Carlos García Adanero, from Navarra Suma, have agreed to reproach ERC that, in reality, what it seeks is the expulsion from Catalonia of State institutions, such as the Security Forces.

Miguel Gutiérrez, from Cs, has complained that Carvalho seeks "subterfuges" related to the dictatorship to do so; the 'popular' deputy Llanos de Luna has labeled as "absurd" the attempt to hold a building responsible for breaches of the law by some during the dictatorship and Ignacio Gil Lázaro, from Vox, has boasted of agreeing with the Government in which the Police must continue in Vía Laietana.

"You want to acquire with a white glove the building that they tried to assault in October 2017," said Gil Lázaro, while García Adanero has blamed ERC for seeking the "political victory" of kicking out the agents from that symbolic enclave.