In many respects, 1979 was year zero for Nou Barris. It was the district with the biggest deficiencies in the city, thus attracting the attention of the new municipal authorities. The local people’s long-standing demands found an opportunity to be met in the new democratic context.

The main goals of the new, democratic council were the humanisation of the city, administrative reform and metropolitan regional planning. Particular attention was paid to the key objective of the first term of office: decentralising municipal power linked to more citizen participation.

District IX, which had around 20% of the city’s population and over 300,000 voters, encompassed the neighbourhoods that had grown the most in population terms during the years of massive urban development: Sant Andreu, Bon Pastor, Verdun, La Trinitat and Ciutat Meridiana.

The PSC achieved its best results on a city level in District IX, with 40.5% of the votes and 6 councillors. Next came the PSUC with 26.1% and 4 councillors, which was also their best result. A long way behind came CC-UCD (11.9%, 1 councillor), CiU (10.6%, 1 councillor), ERC (4.2%, 1 councillor) and two smaller parties, the Workers’ Party of Catalonia (PTC) and the Communists, took the last two councillor positions.