The two opposition parties within Barcelona City Council, the Convergència i Unió (CiU) and the Partido Popular (PP), clearly stated during the course of yesterday what they would do if they were in control of local government in facing up to a scheduled ‘macrobotellón’ (a street drinking binge by youths in the city, a scene expected to be replicated throughout the main towns and cities throughout Spain during Friday night) in the Catalan capital. The CiU’s Xavier Trias, together with the PP’s Alberto Fernández Diaz, called upon the mayor of Barcelona, Joan Clos, to show a firm hand in dealing with the drinking binge to be held on the city’s streets and to ensure local bylaws are adhered to and local residents can get some rest.

Trias said that ‘it shouldn’t be treated as a day for a ‘macrobotellón’, but rather the application of daily bylaws’. He added that when local bars and discos close in the zone, it is common for youths to utilise plazas and streets in the Raval district of Barcelona to ‘play the bongos or guitar’. He complained of the irritation felt by those residents living close to leisure spots and in the centre of the city.

Trias told Clos that he could count on the ‘absolute support’ of the CiU ‘in ensuring local order is maintained’. Fernández Diaz asked that ‘uncomplicated action be taken with the aim of ensuring this night passes without episodes of violence’.

The general secretary of the Federación Catalana de Asociaciones de Locales de Ocio Nocturnos (Fecalon), Fernando Martínez Iglesias, also asked yesterday that ‘the criminalisation of youths and leisure be neutralised’ and that ‘raising awareness through arguments and convincing messages [be used instead]’.

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