Mayor asked to step down after video of him with axe trying to evict squatters

The mayor of Caldes de Malavella, Salvador Balliu, is facing calls to step down after a video was revealed in which he was holding an axe trying to evict squatters from his property on Easter Monday.

The representative of the northern Catalan town, close to Girona, is heard saying 'I want you out at 2pm' and 'I have been paid in order to kick you out' in a threatening tone.

Talking to the Catalan News Agency (ACN), Balliu apologized for his behavior but said that he was the one attacked, since as soon as he entered his house, two individuals with batons and a dog approached him and pushed him out of the property.

Three of the opposition parties in the town of 8,000 inhabitants (ERC, Som Caldes-Amunt and Caldes en Comú) have asked the mayor to quit "immediately" because, while they are against squatting, they say "no one can take the law into their own hands."

"We condemn Mr Balliu's behavior," they said, regretting that the name of their town is now hitting the headlines due to the incident.

"He is representing our town in everything he does, and this is not the image or values that we want the town to transmit," read a joint statement that also urged for responsible policies to tackle the ongoing housing crisis.

On Monday at 7pm, the mayor will give an explanation to opposition councilors, but he has already told ACN that, while on Easter break, the police called him to say that his house had been occupied.

The young individuals in the house, according to Balliu, told officers they would leave by Good Friday, and two days later the mayor found no one on his property. The following day, he returned in order to install some locks and found several individuals there, as the video showed.

Balliu said he is sure that it was the squatters who made the video public, and that the footage does not show the whole episode – the 45-second video shows the mayor with an axe, a young man with a baton next to him, and another individual sitting half-naked.