US threatens to cut funding to Barcelona's Ignasi Iglésias Library over inclusivity project

The impact of policies against diversity by the new United States government under Donald Trump has reached Barcelona.

The city council has received a request from the US Embassy ordering the closure of an inclusive project at Ignasi Iglésias Library in Can Fabra, in the Sant Martí District of Barcelona. 

According to reports from newspapers El País and El Periódico, confirmed by the Catalan News Agency (ACN), the embassy demanded the library implement an executive order from Trump – Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity. 

The library runs an inclusive project called American Space Barcelona, a cultural exchange between the city and the US, which partially funds the program.

Barcelona City Council has already responded that it will not comply with the restriction and added that the executive order has no validity outside the United States.

Trump's order seeks to eliminate initiatives or programs that promote inclusion through policies of equality, equity, and diversity.

American Space Barcelona includes science and technology projects, English language learning, cultural programs, educational activities, aimed at children, young people and the general public.

"No legal validity"

Barcelona mayor, Jaume Collboni, estimated the US government contributes €20,000 to the initiative.

The Socialist mayor stated that the order from Trump has "no legal validity" in Barcelona, nor any "democratic or political legitimacy," and guaranteed that the American Space program will continue at the Ilibrary.

Collboni emphasized that the city council will not "take a step back" on gender equality and inclusion policies and criticized the US president's questioning of values "inseparable" from Barcelona’s identity.

"These are core principles and more necessary than ever," he said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

Other parties also criticized the US government’s request, including pro-independence ERC and Junts, and left-wing Comuns.