Friday, March 24, 2023, 6:44 p.m.
The judicial problems accumulate for the mayoress of Barcelona, Ada Colau, just two months before the elections, in which she aspires to be re-elected for a third term. Days after declaring herself as a defendant before the Provincial Court for alleged prevarication and coercion of the Vauras real estate investment company, a court has now opened a new criminal case against Colau. This is the third case for which she is being investigated simultaneously.
On this occasion, the courts have admitted a complaint filed by Josep Antoni Acebillo, who was the architect of the Town Hall in the time of Pasqual Maragall, for processing. Colau is being investigated for an urban crime and for embezzlement for the construction of the so-called ‘superblocks’ of the Eixample, a project that has caused a fiery controversy in the Catalan capital, with supporters and detractors. It so happens that the courts have admitted this complaint for processing, after the Prosecutor’s Office filed the complaints filed by the same architect, together with two lawyers. According to the complainant, “we are facing a manifest regulatory violation of the land law that can have devastating effects.” The superblocks are one of Colau’s great bets: it tries to convert some of the busiest streets in the city center for cars into squares and green areas for pedestrians. The Prosecutor’s Office estimated that the project “did not have” sufficient elements to “be considered a crime on land use planning” as the complaint alleged.
In addition to the accusation for the complaint filed for coercion against the vulture fund, Colau is being investigated for alleged irregularities in some subsidies granted by the Barcelona City Council between 2019 and 2020 to entities related to En Comú Podem. These two cases were reopened after being initially archived. Colau said days ago that the 10 lawsuits that she has filed against him in recent years have ended up being archived.
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