The city of Girona hosted the 2nd Catalonia Municipalities and Post-Growth Forum on 9–10 April, becoming a key space for discussions on sustainable local governance models.
The event, held at the Centre Cultural La Mercè, was organized in collaboration with the Girona City Council, Research & Degrowth International, and the Barcelona Provincial Council Sustainability Network. Around one hundred politicians, researchers, and civil society representatives participated in the forum, where “post-growth municipalism” strategies were discussed. These strategies aim to meet people’s fundamental needs—such as housing, food, and care—at the highest possible level while remaining within the planet’s biophysical limits.
Speakers and key topics
Throughout the forum, including the opening session titled “Post-Growth Municipalism Experiences to Address the Challenges of the 21st Century,” several speakers presented their perspectives. Among them were Sergi Cot (Climate Action Councillor of the Girona City Council), Tomislav Tomašević (Mayor of Zagreb), Kader Uzun (DEM Party PM member, AK Local Governments Congress member – municipal governance in Kurdistan), and Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrich (Transition Towns Scotland). The sessions addressed topics such as “Methodologies for Post-Growth Municipal Governance,” “Food Sovereignty Strategies,” “Care Services and Access to Housing,” “Alliances with Social Actors,” and “Inter-Municipal Cooperation.”
Kader Uzun, the Deputy Co-Mayor of the Çınar Municipality, presented the ecological and women’s liberation–focused municipal model of the DEM Party.
Equal representation and democratic model
Uzun underlined that the co-mayorship system is an inspiring model of equal representation worldwide. She stated that the main objective of municipalities is to build a democratic, ecological, and gender-equal society.
Services despite trustees
Uzun recalled that they won 85 municipalities in March 2024, but that government-appointed trustees were assigned to 10 municipalities, including Mardin and Van. She stated that despite the central government’s “austerity measures” and administrative restrictions, they have not given up on serving the public.
Social transformation projects
She shared concrete projects such as women’s policy directorates, multilingual nurseries (Kurdish, Arabic, etc.), participatory budgeting, and production cooperatives based on social solidarity.
Call for peace and dialogue
Uzun emphasized the need for dialogue regarding the Kurdish issue in order to establish social peace in Turkey. Referring to Abdullah Öcalan’s peace call of February 27, 2025, she stated that the practice of appointing trustees must come to an end for democratization to advance.
Social governance
Uzun described municipalities not merely as formal institutions, but as a “governance ecosystem” integrated with neighborhood assemblies and civil society, and resilient against central state tutelage.
In his closing remarks, Girona Climate Action Councillor Sergi Cot Cantalosella emphasized that local governments are the closest point of contact with citizens’ daily lives—such as food, housing, and transportation—and therefore must take a leading role in the ecosocial transition. Supported by ICTA-UAB and the European Union, the event concluded with a strong commitment to transform this collective initiative—first launched in Manresa in 2025—into concrete public policies that go beyond institutional boundaries and focus on the real needs of society. The methodologies developed during the forum aim to be applied as replicable models among the participating cities.
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