The poster for the Festes de Tardor, unveiled this Wednesday by the Paeria (Lleida City Council), cannot mask the serious insecurity crisis in Lleida that citizens are enduring. While the City Council bets on popular culture with the work of illustrator Sonia Sierra, copper thefts, squatting, and the abandonment by the Generalitat are becoming entrenched in the city.
A Local Success That Clashes with Youth Precariousness
The poster, designed by Sonia Sierra, a former student of the Municipal School of Art (EAM), aims to exalt Lleida’s popular traditions. The Paeria presents it as a gesture of normalcy and support for the talent of the local creative pool. However, that same talent faces a devastating reality.
According to data from the INE (National Statistics Institute) and the Generalitat’s Youth Observatory, gathered from official sources, the youth unemployment rate in the province of Lleida is high. Furthermore, rental prices in the capital have risen significantly in the past year, according to the Idealista portal. For young people trained at the EAM, making a living from art or finding affordable housing in the city that educated them is a pipe dream. The beautiful poster thus becomes a mirage of a normalcy that a significant portion of the population does not enjoy.
Insecurity in Lleida: Copper Thefts and Institutional Abandonment
While the Paeria focuses on the symbolic, the people of Lleida suffer the consequences of an unrelenting wave of insecurity. Copper thefts from public infrastructure—street lighting, irrigation systems—have become chronic. According to data from the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan police) reported by the Segre newspaper, numerous thefts of this kind have been recorded in the city in the first months of the year, a figure higher than for the same period last year. The cost of repairs is high, according to estimates from the council itself.
The consequences are direct: dark streets, parks without irrigation, and a growing perception of citizen insecurity. Added to this is the proliferation of squatting and the presence of groups of irregular immigrants in certain neighborhoods. The Paeria has repeatedly requested a reinforcement of police presence, but the Generalitat’s response has been, at best, tepid. The Interior Minister, who has been acting for months, has not visited Lleida this year to address this issue. The city feels abandoned by a government that prioritizes the independence agenda over managing real problems.
Opposition Criticizes Institutional “Whitewashing”
The municipal opposition, led by VOX and the PP, has pointed out this contradiction. The VOX spokesperson on the Lleida City Council criticized the local government for prioritizing festival posters over the safety of residents. For its part, the PP has denounced that the Paeria spends resources on propaganda while copper thefts plunge entire neighborhoods into darkness. These criticisms reflect the unease of a citizenry that feels its everyday problems are not a priority.
The councilor for Culture, Festivals, and Traditions, who presented the poster, highlighted the importance of keeping traditions alive. No one disputes that popular culture is a pillar of Lleida’s identity. But the flame of traditions does not light up dark streets, nor does it protect residents from thefts, nor does it offer affordable housing to young people. Municipal management, in the hands of the coalition government between PSC and ERC, seems to have settled into a dynamic of “whitewashing”: investing in image and symbolic acts while the underlying problems are postponed or passed on to a Generalitat that does not respond.
Conclusion: Yes to Culture, But Not as a Smokescreen
The Festes de Tardor will undoubtedly be a successful event in terms of participation. The people of Lleida will throw themselves into the traditions, the giants will dance through the streets, and the smell of gunpowder from the correfocs will fill the air. But when the festivities end, reality will reassert itself. Copper thefts will continue, rents will keep rising, and insecurity will remain a daily concern.
Sonia Sierra’s poster is a beautiful gesture, but it’s not enough. Lleida needs a municipal government that stops taking refuge in the symbolic and that firmly demands from the Generalitat the resources needed to guarantee security, housing, and the maintenance of the city. Popular culture is part of our identity, but it cannot be the smokescreen that hides the crisis the city is going through. Meanwhile, citizens will continue to look at the poster with pride, but with the bitterness of knowing that, behind the image, the city is falling apart.