Barcelona’s Poble-sec and La Marina neighbourhoods are at the centre of a new push from Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), which will ask the city government, led by Jaume Collboni, to approve a full action plan on safety and coexistence.
The proposal is due to be voted on next Wednesday in the Presidency, Interior Regime and Security commission. ERC says the plan should combine participation, coexistence and social inclusion, and also address mental health, social exclusion, housing and security.
Elisenda Alamany, who chairs the ERC group, is behind the initiative, which is signed by councillor Jordi Coronas. ERC also wants every neighbourhood council to include a standing item to report on the plan’s progress and how it is being carried out. For more local coverage, see our news page.
The proposal comes after two fatal shootings in La Marina within a month, which ERC says were likely linked to drug trafficking. The area has also seen homelessness and social vulnerability, especially on Montjuïc. ERC says far-right groups have linked these problems to crime, which has led to violent attacks, including by masked individuals.
ERC says the issues need different responses. For criminal gangs, it wants a firm police response focused on fighting mafias and drug trafficking, with work aimed at dismantling organised crime networks, large-scale drug trafficking structures and international links. It also wants critical points of sale and crime mapped through direct neighbourhood control, with priority given to the La Marina Coexistence Table.
For coexistence and social inclusion, ERC proposes monitoring tables in each neighbourhood, with social and neighbourhood organisations involved. It also wants more civic agents and other professionals for prevention and mediation, plus stronger community recovery of public spaces and inclusion pathways for young people and vulnerable people. The party also backs a stronger presence of neighbourhood police from the Guàrdia Urbana and the Mossos d’Esquadra, with a strictly community-focused approach.
The plan also includes a community response to mental health and addictions, with stable, multidisciplinary street teams in complex areas of Montjuïc, Poble-sec and La Marina. On housing, ERC wants the Generalitat to speed up planned developments in La Marina by Incasòl on municipal plots ceded in March 2025, which would add 250 public housing units. It also calls for more social housing, more places in Housing First programmes, stronger early detection for families at risk of exclusion, and more mandatory mediation with private landlords and rental funds to prevent residential exclusion.
