Sants-Badal, the Barcelona neighborhood that already knows who will be mayor

The Rambla de Badal, border of the Sants-Badal neighborhood of Barcelona, ​​in a perspective from the drawer of the train tracks and the metro.Albert Garcia

Call it "the Ohio", in an election, the territorial zone of the contest that usually hits the overall result.

This is what happens in the presidential elections in the United States: whoever wins in the state of Ohio is president.

In the municipal districts of Barcelona, ​​the Ohio of the city is the neighborhood of Sants-Badal.

This is indicated by the data provided by the Municipal Data Office.

In 2011, 2015 and 2019, this neighborhood located at one end of Sants-Montjuïc, touching L'Hospitalet, is where residents vote in a proportion more similar to that of the city as a whole.

In the last elections Ernest Maragall won;

in 2015 the current mayor, Ada Colau.

Always in surprisingly even proportions to the overall result.

In 2011 too, but Xavier Trias (then CiU candidate and who was mayor) did not win, as in the city as a whole.

Going to the neighborhood that already knows who will be the mayor is surprising one neighbor after another.

They are unaware that they are Barcelona's Ohio and they are stunned.

Although when they think about it a bit, they end up arguing that it is a neighborhood with differentiated areas.

"With a lot of variety of neighbors," they repeat.

The limits of the neighborhood are the train and metro tracks, L'Hospitalet (Riera Blanca street) on the left, Avenida de Madrid on the top (border with the Les Corts district), and the Ramblas de Brasil and Badal on the right.

With 24,000 residents on 41 hectares and 10,000 homes, the socioeconomic composition is not homogeneous.

"We are like three or four different neighborhoods in one," says Albert, a journalist who lives on the Rambla: "Rents are lower in the Mercat Nou part than in the area that touches Avenida de Madrid, on the border with Les Corts ,

More rich.

And on the Sants road, it's more like the Sants of a lifetime”.

The housing stock is also visibly different, with a mixture of old buildings in poor condition, others from a few decades ago and spacious, low houses and new construction.

Balconies in the Sants-Badal neighborhood of Barcelona next to the escalators that go up to the promenade that runs over the train tracks and the metro.Albert Garcia

But there are points where people from the entire neighborhood come together, such as the

, the Club Esportiu Mediterrani.

Its veteran employees, like Jordi, who has served members for 30 years, insist: "The Ohio thing doesn't surprise me, because there is a lot of variety."

He even sees it on election days, because the club is an electoral college.

One of the issues that he highlights is participation among the migrant population.

21% of the residents are of foreign nationality.

Louis is one of them.

He is 27 years old and was born in the Dominican Republic, he says, razor in hand, while working in his father's barbershop.

“It will be the first time that I have everything in order to vote,” he says.

Melina, an Argentine with only 11 months in the city, would not vote even if she could, she says while she walks the dog: “Don't count me, I don't know who the king, queen or president is.

In my country I didn't vote either, because then the laws are not respected”.

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Neider, 40 years old and with two children, predicts "a revalidation of Colau", although he then says that he does not vote in the municipal elections.

Juanita, 81 years old and in delicate health, does not remember what she voted for the last time and is skeptical: "None of them will feed me."

Juanjo and Emilio, father-in-law and son-in-law, are sure about it: "We will vote for the right, for the PP, always against the one there is," they reveal sitting in the El Candil bar-restaurant, where they eat a menu for 11.50 euros.

Like the elderly Juanita, they criticize the mayoress Ada Colau, without guessing what her policies in the area have harmed.

Carretera de Sants, with a metro stop every 400 meters, is the commercial epicenter of a neighborhood where there is a balance between large supermarkets and franchises, even neighborhood stores.

In the rest of the area it is not difficult to find local upholsterers, plumbers, installers.

And there is also a bookmaker.

Tourism has also arrived in the neighbourhood, with several hotels, hostels and tourist apartments on the border with L'Hospitalet.

This Thursday it was easy to imagine this accommodation offer because there were several Bruce Springsteen fans coming to the city for the two scheduled concerts.

And a curiosity.

An argument that is repeated, but in the opposite direction.

Neighbors who are suspicious of "what the neighborhood has changed with immigration";

and those who say that "it has changed because new neighbors with greater purchasing power have arrived."

“Touching Sants they are very

, because of the trade,

, conservatives;

and on either side, there is everything, like everywhere”, Julio describes on the way to the doctor.

“This thing that here we know who will be the mayor, in the end it is true because the one who sells the best motorcycle comes out”, two early retirees who walk and do not want to give his name.

In the 2019 generals, in Sants-Badal ERC won followed by PSC and the commons.

And in the 2021 regional elections, the party with the most votes was the PSC, closely followed by ERC and with Junts as the third force.

109 Catalan municipalities know who will be mayor because a single list is presented

In Catalonia there are 109 municipalities where only one candidacy is presented in the elections on May 28.

Your neighbors already know who will be the mayor because in the elections there will only be one ballot.

With a total of 947 municipalities in the community, those that will have a single list represent more than 10%.

Most of them are small municipalities: eight are in the province of Barcelona, ​​36 in Girona, 21 in Tarragona and 31 in Lleida.

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