Xavier Trias will not easily forget the maneuver that, 100 days ago today, deprived him of being re-instated as mayor of Barcelona. Although he does not rule out support for large city projects, the leader of the main group of the municipal opposition does not see himself sharing a government with the PSC and is very critical of Jaume Collboni, who he does not identify as a driver of change regarding the policies of Ada Colau.
Collboni’s 100 days at the head of the mayor’s office are complete. Are you one of those who have noticed a change or one of those who think that everything remains the same?
They say that Collboni has been ruling for 100 days, but in reality he has been ruling for 1,500. This is a case like a basket. He speaks as if he were a newcomer, but he has been leading the city for five and a half years and deals with very important issues, such as mobility, security or economic promotion.
Do you notice any changes compared to Colau?
The forms Colau had a serious problem with forms. 80% of the people of Barcelona wanted a change and Mr. Collboni is not the change. What he is doing is an image operation, a make-up operation, he continues to say that he is progressive. If being progressive is doing it as badly as the last eight years, what kind of progressivism is that? He argues that to be progressive is to rule with the commons. Colau could seem unsympathetic to many people, but Mr. Collboni, even being nicer, I don’t see that he can change many things if he governs with the commons. The only possible change is what I offered him: me as mayor and them governing with us and with ERC. They made a serious mistake.
Is it compatible to form a government with BComú and have the support of Trias?
How do you want this to be compatible? If the PSC governs with the commons and ERC, especially with the commons, it is clear that we will be the opposition, a responsible opposition.
You governed four years in minority. Do you think it is possible that in the current circumstances Collboni can also do it?
Everything is possible. It depends on what they let him do. Collboni is trapped by the commons and it must be remembered that this gentleman is mayor thanks to the PP. They may feel a little ashamed of all this, but this is the reality. Things in Barcelona continue to work badly because the mayor does not have the capacity to change them. People continue to see that the city is dirty, that security is a drama. The limits of what is tolerable must be marked. And it is not, for example, that the gentlemen of the PAH paint in colors the gentlemen who go to a congress (The District).
Is the possibility of Junts entering the municipal government a door that he sees as closed and barred?
It’s not that I see it closed, it’s that Mr. Collboni, with whom I maintain a good relationship, says in all his statements that he wants to form a government with the commons.
But very few days ago, in the municipal commissions, the PSC said amen to all the Junts proposals…
Mr. Collboni and the city have a problem. Does he want to rule the city with the ideas and mentality of the commons or with ours? Our proposals and those of the PSC match because the socialists come to our positions and because they realize that things are going wrong with Ms. Colau’s ideas. I seriously don’t understand how he will be able to rule with her.
What will Xavier Trias do when PSC and BComú end up agreeing?
We will be a tough and critical opposition. And I will leave, but not in the short term, because I will be at the City Council for a while longer. But my vocation is not to stay at the head of the opposition and I will not stay there.
Is there an option to reconsider the decision?
No. It wouldn’t make sense, because in four years I won’t stand for election and, therefore, what is logical is for my people to take the reins.
Will the composition of the Barcelona government depend on how Pedro Sánchez’s investiture is resolved?
No, they are things that have nothing to do with each other. Make sure that Mr. Collboni got together with the PP so that I was not mayor.
What do you think will happen with the investiture of the president of the Spanish Government?
One thing is what I want, that there be an understanding, and another is what might happen. Mr. Sánchez, the PSOE and the PSC must be clear about what Catalonia is. If it is not clear to them that it is a nation and the voices that call us coup plotters predominate, we are doing badly.
Is the formation of a government necessarily linked to the negotiation of the 2024 municipal budget or are they two different things?
It is impossible to separate one thing from the other. If you don’t join the government you don’t support the budget, it’s common sense. If we have to be in the opposition, we will be in the opposition, nothing happens.
With the change in the mayor’s office, some city debates are being revised. For example, that of the tourist model. Is Barcelona at the limit of its capacity?
Like all tourist towns. The quality needs to be increased and this does not mean only that tourists with a lot of financial capacity come. According to what type of tourism we are not interested in and we should be very tough, be very clear. For example, we have to be very tough on drug tourism. There are many people who say that nothing happens with marijuana. Let them go to mental health centers and they will see that it is causing a lot of problems for young people, that there is a generation that may not die as happened with heroin, but that remains unused, and this is a very serious problem for a country.
What do you think will happen with the sentence against the green axis of Consell de Cent?
It will be necessary to reach an agreement with the promoters of the demand and, above all, to reflect on the way of doing things. You have to do them well, not as you please. Do we have to completely pacify eleven axes as Council of Hundred? It’s absurd. Then we will ask ourselves why people don’t come to Barcelona.
During his time as mayor he tackled very important road reforms: Passeig de Gràcia, the central section of Diagonal, Passeig Sant Joan… Has the time come to put a stop to it?
Depending on where the renovations are done, there shouldn’t be any problems. What you cannot do is that, when you decide to reform Via Laietana or the Rambla, the works will last four or six years. When we reformed the Diagonal, my obsession was that the Diagonal continue to function and that many technicians told me that the avenue would look better by removing many trees.
Now trees fall by themselves…
What happens is that a wrong decision has been made with the drought. Not watering the trees is barbaric, it is destroying a city’s heritage. These trees could be irrigated with groundwater.
