Number of riot police at evictions down 23% since new protocol in place

The number of Mossos d'Esquadra riot police present at evictions has gone down by 23% since the Catalan interior ministry's new protocol came into effect last December, according to a report published in El Periódico Monday morning.

The new protocol states that police cannot be present except when there is a ruling or the eviction is considered high-risk. It also establishes that they must find out if there is a vulnerable person in the affected household, and, if so, notify social services.

In the first three months the protocol was in place, riot police were at a total of 91 evictions, while in July, September, and October of last year, they were at 117 – there were no evictions in August.

All in all, Mossos d'Esquadra mediators were at 40% of evictions with police presence.

"An eviction is the last link in a long chain of failures," interior minister Joan Ignasi Elena tweeted. "The solution is a social one, not to do with police."

Over a fifth of Spain's evictions in Catalonia

Catalonia saw more evictions than any other part of Spain last year, according to official data released in February.

Around 22% of all evictions in Spain in 2022 took place in Catalonia, where there were 8,574.

Most of them, 6,160, were the result of falling behind on rent, while 1,567 were foreclosures.

The figures also show that squatters being evicted accounted for 657 of the 8,574 evictions in Catalonia in 2022.