The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has stopped the plea presented by JxCat asking for the removal of the Gold Medal from the city to former President Felipe González after declassified CIA information had pointed out that in 1984 the PSOE government was behind the creation of the GAL. Colau, in the plenary session of the City Council, has not ruled on the possibility of withdrawing the mention of González, but he has stated that the medals should be withdrawn from people convicted of justice, which would exclude the former president. The mayoress has indeed opposed the former Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Vera, keeping the Barcelona 92 medal of honor after he was convicted of his involvement in state terrorism.
At the end of the plenary session this Friday, the leader of JxCat, Elsa Artadi, has read a plea requesting that the mayor “start the process” to withdraw the medals for González and Vera. Colau has thrown balls out: “Revocation of the medals is an initiative of the plenary and we and you will not solve it now.” The mayor has proposed to the leader of JxCat to open a debate to “establish criteria that do not depend on specific current issues” to revoke the medals. “When they announced their petition this week, I learned why Vera had a medal. They were awarded it at a time when hundreds of distinctions were en masse. I have seen that people with convictions like Josep Lluís Núñez or Luis Roldán have it… Sixte Cambra (former president of the Barcelona Port Authority and former CiU senator) also has an open cause, ”recalled the mayor. Colau without naming him has also reminded Artadi that Jordi Pujol gave the city decoration when he recognized that he had money in Andorra without declaring.
After reminding postconvergents that there are decorated excargos close to the nationalists and with problems with justice, Colau has rejected “any form of violence or terrorism and more if it is committed by the State itself.” The municipal leader of the PSC, Jaume Collboni, and a partner in the BComú government, claimed the figure of former President González the same day that JxCAT announced his intention to withdraw the commemoration.
Artadi, for his part, has argued that, “for Barcelona to position itself, a sentence is not necessary” and has defined as “peculiar” that the municipal government “does not dare or initiate procedures” to withdraw the gold medal Felipe González.
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