The full council meeting for May 2020 was held in the plenary chamber again, after the previous ones were held remotely. Safety measures were applied, meaning that only fifteen councillors could be in the chamber at the same time, including the Mayor, while the rest had to take part from home, from where they could also speak and vote. The councillors held a minute’s silence at the start of the session, in memory of the victims of Covid-19.

Opposition proposals

ERC presented a proposal for measures to continue creating more pedestrian space in the city and to make the most of the exceptional circumstances for Covid-19 to establish changes to the model for distributing and sharing public space, focusing on citizens. The proposal was backed by the groups from the municipal government and the abstention of JxCat, meaning it was approved despite the votes against it from Cs, the PP and Barcelona pel Canvi.

JxCat put forward a proposal to seek ways of kickstarting the economy and social policies. The proposal called for an increase to spending, urging the central government to allow councils to use their surplus budget from the previous year and budgetary carryover, or to expand their capacity for debt. The proposal was backed by the groups from the municipal government, with Cs and Barcelona pel Canvi abstaining. ERC and the PP voted against it.

For their part, Cs called on the City Council to urge the Government of Catalonia to maintain the full amount of FEDER funds allocated to the city so that they can be used to tackle the social and economic crisis resulting from the effects of Covid-19. The proposal was approved with the support of the municipal government, the proposing group, the PP and Barcelona pel Canvi, with JxCat abstaining and ERC voting against it.

The proposal from the PP was approved unanimously by all municipal groups. The proposal was for a legal report detailing procurement carried out by the City Council during the state of emergency.

Finally, Barcelona pel Canvi called for a new impetus to the metropolitan character of the city. The intention is to step up joint work carried out between metropolitan councils and find ways of improving strategic planning to tackle big common problems such as housing, inequality, mobility, the labour market and climate change. The proposal prospered with the support of the municipal government, Cs, the PP and the proposing group, with ERC and JxCat voting against it.

Institutional declarations

Two institutional declarations were read out at the end of the session. The first, to recognise the role of the local world and big cities as the front line in the response to the Covid-19 crisis. The text called on the central government to allow local councils access to resources and powers to tackle the situation.

The second institutional declaration condemned the French state for breaking up a camp inhabited by Roma people to the north of Paris in April 2013. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has now ruled that France violated the basic rights of those affected. The institutional declaration also underlined that Barcelona is a city which is open to everybody, regardless of ethnicity, language, religion, gender or sexual orientation.