The former councilor for PODEMOS in the Fraga City Council writes a new opinion piece talking about the regional residence
I remember that the first time I debated the issue of care homes and their model (public or private) was in one of my first plenary sessions of the last legislature, back in 2019. It's worth noting that this is a debate that we've been having in Fraga and the surrounding area for many years.
At that moment, we debated as if the residence was imminent and the people of Bajo Cinca could enjoy this much-needed service immediately, and not what it is in reality: a barren, completely abandoned plot of land full of stubble and incipient garbage.
I immediately understood that this project would become yet another political weapon tossed around by one side or the other. You know the drill: the usual suspects and their ever-present mouthpieces.
What seemed obvious and simple—that two administrations should collaborate to develop a project essential for the well-being of all the inhabitants of Bajo Cinca—quickly became entrenched, as it was used as a battering ram by the City Council, given the passivity of a region that never raised its voice, to engage in the same old politics.
I always thought the debate wasn't about whether the developed plot had to be handed over or not, or whether, at the same time, the plan of the future residence had to be drawn up; those were technical issues.
The real objective, in my view, was to attack each other with the clear aim of gaining political advantage, muddying the public debate and diverting it from the real and, ultimately, only demand that we, the inhabitants of Bajo Cinca, had; which is the urgent need for this residence to be up and running as soon as possible so that we could enjoy its services today.
Consequently, after about five years since that initial discussion I had about the residence, today it's exactly what I described earlier: a vacant lot. Not in the legal sense they tried to sell us on. Yes, in the sense we all understand by a vacant lot. Simply put; earth, stones, leaves, weeds, trees, and not a hint of when we'll be able to enjoy the residence. We also don't know when construction will begin, or how much it will cost.
Because, in the end, while politicians play games and pass projects from one institution to another, the reality is that our grandparents don't have a public nursing home in the region. Either we have to make a huge investment to ensure they're well cared for, or they have to move far away from our town, with all the uprooting that entails, just to have access to a public nursing home.
