Seen and unseen. Yesterday’s extraordinary municipal meeting of Barcelona City Council lasted only three minutes, the first of the 2023-2027 mandate presided over by Mayor Jaume Collboni in the Carles Pi i Sunyer hall. Her predecessor in office for the last eight years, Ada Colau, was not there, who arrived late, just as the fleeting session was ending, and missed it. The former councilwoman explained that she arrived late due to family logistics problems.
There was only one point to discuss, the election of the 24 councilors who will represent the City Council of the Catalan capital on the Council of the Metropolitan Area of ??Barcelona (AMB), which will be constituted on the 27th. Usually this designation coincides with the plenum of the cartipàs, which does not yet have a celebration date. It could take place on the last Friday of the month, the 28th, but it is not certain. Therefore, it was decided not to wait any longer and to give approval to the names of councilors proposed by each group.
After 9:30 a.m., when the session was supposed to start, Collboni asked the groups over the microphone about the absences in the Colau chamber and also of the second deputy mayor, Maria Eugènia Gay. After consulting the secretary, he decided to open the session as there was a sufficient quorum. “It is an honor to preside over this plenary, honor and satisfaction, which I suppose I share with all of you, to represent the citizens in the house of all, the city house”, said the mayor from the presidential chair with this solemn tone that characterizes him since he was invested. On his left was his third lieutenant, Albert Batlle. The seat to his right remained empty, as it is the one that belongs to Gay.
The board of spokesmen agreed that there would be no turn of words and the councilors proposed by the formations to represent the City Council in the AMB, each with a number according to their weight in the Consistory, were ratified without further ado with a voting by groups which was, as expected, unanimous in favor. So, a simple procedure. Collboni said that there will be time during the following sessions “to talk and debate”. And he expressed his desire that this be done with “respect, cordiality, humility and a vocation to serve the city”.
The Barcelona City Council will have 24 councilors in the AMB plenary session, in addition to the mayor. Seven will be from the Trias group for Barcelona (Xavier Trias, Jordi Martí, Damià Calvet, Joana Ortega, Josep Rius, Assumpció Laïlla and Ramon Tremosa); six, from the PSC (Laia Bonet, Albert Batlle, Jordi Valls, Marta Villanueva, Raquel Gil and Rosa Alarcón); five, from BComú (Janet Sanz, Guille López, Carolina Recio, Jess González and Lucia Martín); three, from ERC (Elisenda Alamany, Jordi Castellana and Jordi Coronas); two, from the PP (Àngels Esteller and Víctor Martí), and one, from Vox (Gonzalo de Oro-Pulido). Three group presidents – the commune Ada Colau, the republican Ernest Maragall and the popular Daniel Sirera – will not be in the metropolitan body. Yes, Jaume Collboni will be there, who as mayor is a born member.
At the next meeting at the Carles Pi i Sunyer salon, the card should be approved. Collboni has already appointed the lieutenants, councilors and commissioners of the government, as well as the managers. These are attributions that correspond to him as mayor. But other issues, such as how many plenary committees there will be, who will chair them, the eventual staff that each group will have, who will be the councilors of the municipal companies, remuneration… must be approved by the plenary. This implies that the Socialists, in government with only 10 of the 41 councilors, must agree with the opposition to achieve a majority. As has been said, the most likely thing is that this session will take place at the end of the month, once the electoral period has passed and before August.
