Tenants' Union and Casa Orsola residents deny negotiations and accuse mayor of exploiting their case

The Tenants' Union and residents of Casa Orsola have denied that they are negotiating with the property owner, after the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, assured that there are talks ongoing on the matter.

They made this statement on Monday afternoon and repeated it during demonstrations at night in front of the building, where protests were held to coincide with what would have been the second attempt at evicting Josep Torrent. Instead, that eviction attempt was postponed until February 18. 

Carme Arcarazo, spokesperson for the Tenants' Union, defended the collective bargaining and stated that “if Josep is still in his apartment today, it is because we fought together.”

“Today we heard on the news that it seems that there is some kind of negotiation and we would like to deny it,” the union spokesperson said in statements to the media. “What Collboni said that there is negotiation and mediation at Casa Orsola right now is false. Neither the residents nor the union have received any communication. We understand that a negotiation cannot take place behind the backs of the residents and the union that has led the conflict.”

Arcarazo also stated that the reason why Collboni “wants to play the hero” is because “through the back door he wants to water down one of the few measures that guarantee the right to housing in the city.”

She accused the owner of the building of being "guilty" of the situation, but stated that politicians are also "responsible" for the housing crisis, and pointed out that "it cannot be ignored that the Socialist Party governs the Spanish government, the Catalan government, and the Barcelona city council."

Demonstration

Arcarazo spoke in front of the residential building where a thousand people were gathered on Monday evening to protest against the evictions.

The protesters celebrated the postponement with musical performances from the balconies and with a communal dinner and bar at street level, occupying the entire intersection.

Owner considers selling building

​​Albert Ollé, the owner of investment fund Lioness Inversiones, which owns the Casa Orsola building, has opened the door to possibly selling the controversial property.

“I suppose I will eventually end up selling the property. When that happens, they may find themselves with a real vulture who will have no interest in preserving the heritage or finding agreements,” he said in an open letter.

In the text, Ollé defended himself against the accusations he has received recently, accused some tenants of bad practice, and assured that he “only wanted to maintain a modernist building in the city center in a sustainable way.”

Ollé also thanks the Catalan Ombudsman and Barcelona City Council for their attempts at mediation, “although perhaps a little late.”