VIDEO | Santiago Espot Denounces the Economic Model 'That's Killing Barcelona'

Santiago Espot, known for his firm pro-independence and nationalist stances, has been denouncing Barcelona's decline in various areas for some time. A review of his social media shows a litany of criticisms toward mass tourism, insecurity, dirtiness, or loss of identity. All of this is part of a project called Defend Barcelona and may have a political (municipal) translation in the future.

Recently, Espot offered an explanation about the "economic model" that, in his opinion, is behind this degradation of the city. Essentially, it boils down to a combination of the service sector (mainly tourism) and cheap labor in the form of immigration. "All to enrich the city's lobbies," Espot claims:

Pointing to the Elites

Certainly, Catalonia's economic model, with Barcelona at the forefront, consists of the service sector and population concentration. This explains two of the most distinctive elements of the city's degradation. The first is the collapse of public services, and the second is the housing price, which can't digest the high demand.

"A hegemonic and perverse model has been installed," says Espot. The service sector "causes a massive importation of cheap labor, willing to work under conditions that the locals are not willing to."

All of this, Espot concludes, is inseparable from "economic elites in the capital of Catalonia that, in the form of a lobby, are the promoters and responsible for this model, sponsored and tolerated by the various municipal governments." This criticism is notable considering that the classic processism of ERC and Junts has been characterized by bothering the economic elites as little as possible.

For the moment, all this activity on Espot's social media, as well as from other promoters of Defend Barcelona, hasn't explicitly translated into a new political force. In any case, it is assumed that they are gauging the project's reception to launch it into the political arena. In that case, a new political actor would be added to the very fragmented and complex Catalan politics, which is clearly leaving the processist era behind.