Barcelona mayor denies responsibility before judge after investment fund files lawsuit

The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has denied any responsibility before a judge as part of an ongoing investigation into her and two of her councilors for fining real estate investment fund Vauras in 2019. The firm had been sanctioned for attempting to evict tenants living in the occupied 'Bloc Llavors' building in the city's Poble-sec neighborhood.

Testifying in court on Monday, she said she was not involved in the decision because she had delegated her housing powers to her councilors and public servants. Colau is being investigated for breaching official duty and coercions.

Her statement only lasted ten minutes and "went very well," she said to the press at the city hall afterward. "This case does not exist," she added, pointing out that a local council had already dismissed the case a regional judicial authority had decided to reopen.

"This vulture fund is trying to intimidate a democratic local council because it is not achieving its aim, but it will not achieve it."

"We have always acted within the legal framework, complying with the law," she said. "Big landowners were obliged to offer social rents for vulnerable people that had occupied their flats, and they did not comply with this."

"I am sure this lawsuit will be dismissed," Colau said. "I am concerned about vulture funds that can continue speculating with impunity and evicting residents from their homes, as well as raising rent prices disproportionately."

The mayor of Barcelona has urged the Spanish government to take action to avoid a further surge in rent prices. After the war in Ukraine broke out and prices began to spike a year ago, the executive in Madrid limited annual rent increases to 2% in 2022, a measure that has been extended for the whole of 2023.

The city council fined Vauras for not offering housing alternatives to vulnerable tenants when trying to evict them and for not complying with the current legislation. The €417,000 fines were withdrawn after a court ordered the city authorities to do so last May.

The complaint filed by the investment fund against the city council was first shelved, but in April 2022, Barcelona magistrates ordered the case to be reopened.