Calls on the Ministry of the Interior to reinforce care for victims of terrorism on the fifth anniversary of the attacks
BARCELONA, 17 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The mayor of Barcelona, ??Ada Colau, has asked this Wednesday that the attacks of August 17, 2017 on the Ramblas not be used to “feed conspiracy theories” because the Mossos themselves say that “it has no basis”.
In addition, it has called on the central government and the Generalitat to reinforce resources and infrastructure to care for victims of terrorism, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils (Tarragona).
“These are infrastructures that the administrations that have more resources and more powers must put in place” and that must be supra-municipal because the attacks affected various populations, he said in an interview with Rac1 collected by Europa Press.
He has criticized that “a lack of care policies for victims has been revealed” and a lack of resources and sufficient infrastructure to care for them, and has praised the response of the Urban Guard, Mossos, medical and emergency services and of the population to the attack.
Colau has assured that from the City Council they discovered with surprise these deficiencies in the attention and has remembered that they promoted subsidies to ensure the legal and psychological advice of the victims.
On whether he believes that a more extensive investigation is required through mechanisms such as an investigative commission in Congress, he has asked for support for the victims who request it, and has warned that this matter should not be used politically to “feed theories of the conspiracy that do more harm to the victims and that the Mossos themselves say they have no basis”.
Asked if the planned reform of La Rambla will modify the memorial of the attacks, Colau recalled that it consists of a plaque embedded in the ground with an inscription for peace, which remembers the victims but “does not interrupt the life of La Rambla” , which he believes is what the terrorists intended.
In a subsequent interview on Catalunya Ràdio, Colau defended the need for a Catalan infrastructure to care for victims, and insisted on valuing the work carried out by the City Council: “We have done much more than was expected due to the skills what we have”.
He has assured that he has explained directly to the Minister of the Interior on several occasions that the attention to victims is insufficient and could be improved, but he believes that the necessary improvement has not taken place, something that he has called regrettable: “I am afraid that there has not yet been this improvement, but we have to keep demanding it”.
In an interview on TVE, the mayor of the Catalan capital has criticized that the process that the victims have had to follow with the administration is cold and bureaucratic and has asked for more humanity, in her words: “It has been like revictimizing and living again the trauma, with the insufficient attention that has been given”.
He has intervened after Esteban González Pons (PP) has done so and after he has criticized the attention to the victims offered by the administrations, something that Colau has reproached him for because he considers that the PP is also responsible because he governed when the attacks: “Now he’s trying to use it as a throwing weapon and I think it’s a shame”.
