The day after failing to regain the mayoralty he lost in 2015, Xavier Trias does not hide his anger and disappointment. He is harsh with the Socialists and with the already mayor Jaume Collboni and also with the PP of Daniel Sirera. What happened feeds his pessimism about the future of the city and relations between Catalonia and Spain
After what happened on Saturday, how do you feel?
Personally I feel good. I think it is a demonstration that the state obedience parties play with confrontation and do not allow a person like me to be mayor of Barcelona. I thought this disease had passed them a bit. I’m very innocent. They continue the same, with this destructive will. They do not understand the problem of Catalonia, the bet that Junts made with PDECat, Democrates, MES… to see if we understand each other. From the City Council a lot could be done to bring positions closer, to seek ways of understanding. I think they have broken the bridges that could have been built. It’s sad, unfortunate.
Is it a pact that has been cooked up outside Barcelona?
Many people say that it has been done in Madrid. I know they have asked permission. There are things that leave me a little perplexed. The position of the PP with me is hard to understand. You have a moral debt towards me. He tried to destroy me using the sewers. It’s so intolerable that I thought they wouldn’t have the audacity to do it again. But they have it despite the fact that throughout this electoral campaign I have tried to make a speech of peace and tranquility, to seek collaboration, consensus and complicity. It has not been possible. There are two responsible. The PP of Catalonia and the PSC. They do not understand that seeking a rapprochement and a certain consensus was very important for politics, not only for Barcelona, ??but also for Catalonia and the State. And I still believe it.
And the commons, what responsibility do they have?
Ada Colau always plays her thing. Yesterday he lost his papers. In an act of inauguration, it makes no sense for the one who has been mayor to hold an electoral rally. It was not necessary. She doesn’t get to be in her place, neither when she wins nor when she loses.
From the election night he said that he would be the mayor, that the alternative pacts had no chance. Didn’t you see it coming that could happen?
There was always the possibility that they would do what they did. I felt cheated. Among other things, we met with Jaume Collboni and Daniel Sirera who would call me if there was anything new that would break the scheme. I’m still waiting. I already know this tactic. You maintain the tension until the last second so that it cannot be influenced. We were in the room where the band played us and neither the PP nor the PSC people appeared there. What was happening? It was about not being able to do anything to prevent what was being plotted. This is very old. But that does not mean that it is not inelegant. It is clear that there are people who cannot be trusted.
He did trust Ernest Maragall to the point of having an agreement ready to govern together.
Yes. The people of Esquerra have shown to be serious. If they ask me if Esquerra is serious, I say that the Esquerra with whom I have spoken, yes.
Did that pact have a run? During the previous mandate, ERC has supported the main policies of the Colau and Collboni government, a very different position from the one held by Junts.
It was an important pact for the city. Very interesting. It’s written. We even agreed on things we disagreed on.
In all this time, has there been a possibility of closing an agreement with the PSC? He even came to consider sharing the mayoralty with Collboni.
From the first day I said that there would not be this cast, that I would not play the puppet role. Knowing the risk we had of not getting the mayoralty, what I would not do is two years with the mayoralty for us and another two for the socialists because it would be a disaster. There has to be a mayor who is in charge, who governs, who directs. I have had a lot of pressure from people telling me that I had to accept it. Time proves me right. Can you govern two years and give another two to a lord who is capable of doing what he has done?
Has the possibility of an alliance with the Socialists later been ruled out?
What alliance can we have? We will make tough opposition these years. We will make Mr. Collboni blush among other things because he only has ten councilors out of a total of 41.
Despite having many programmatic matches with him?
It is evidence that we have them. But we will not end up sacralizing Mr. Collboni, who has done us a trick like this. He has his alliances. They are with the PP and with the commons. He so he has decided. Let’s see how he does it. I want to see it. He explained that he was the change. What an original change! With some he has already governed and now incorporates the PP. And if he tells us that he needs us, well, listen, a big hug! Cynicism cannot go to these extremes. What is happening in Barcelona and many other town halls denotes a degradation of politics, which is moved by very specific interests and egos.
Does it portend, therefore, a tense, conflictive mandate?
It will be complex. We will have to act with great responsibility towards the city. But knowing that the gentlemen who have not wanted us are the socialists. They have been able to choose and they have made a hard choice. They have received the support of the PP and the commons. They have spent the entire campaign explaining how badly Colau has done it, that it is true that he has done it fatally, and now they are in love again. They have a problem.
His candidacy was based on a change with respect to the policies that have been made these last eight years as mayor of Colau. Did you have any concrete measure in mind to make this change noticeable?
Introducing the first 80 measures. The most important is safety. The second, cleanliness. They are the things that most directly affect people. The third, had scheduled a visit this Monday to the Fundació Arrels, without the press, to give a social message. The other important thing, the commitment to a sustainable productive economy. The most important change regarding Mrs. Colau is that we think that the only way to fight poverty is to create economic activity. Degrowth theory is as nonsense as a house. Another approach is that we cannot continue with a mobility that is done against the people. Mobility is a service. It is true that circulation must be pacified, but not against the people. The 30% (reserve for new housing developments at an affordable price) I always say that it is an understandable social approach but it is a failure and it has to be changed. That Casa Seat celebrates its third anniversary and that the common people do not attend the event is a shame. Another example, it cannot be that the King comes to Barcelona, ??that the mayoress leaves him the Albeniz mansion and then does not greet him. Hey, you have a major problem. We are angry with the King. But you have to be consistent with what you do.
From now on, what will Xavier Trias do?
I already said that if he was not mayor I would leave. When? I have to talk to my group. My life changes again and I will be a retiree again. I had decided to leave the foundations that I presided over, now I won’t have to. I hope you are happy.
Do you rule out the possibility of going to Congress in the 23-J elections?
The lists are already made. People have an inventive capacity that I appreciate, but it’s not necessary. My script is very predictable because I have explained it 50 times. Either he was mayor or he left this activity. So I’ll leave her. But I will help my party from my point of view, since they already know that sometimes it is not the strategy they follow. My way of doing it is to play pal de paller, seek collaboration with other people, add, avoid, depending on what confrontations that are not going well for us. It is evident that the State, its most important parties, the Socialists and the PP, want to annihilate us and the only way to defend ourselves is to be strong. This means not breaking us into pieces. This is my obsession. Let’s not do strange things. This sometimes requires sacrifices from all parties, but let’s know that we have some opponents who have no scruples and are capable of playing everything and incapable of apologizing. I have always hoped that one day someone would make a gesture to make amends to me. Now it could be. The PP could have said, listen Trias, we have done all the tricks in the world to you, now we let you be mayor. Well no. And they go for me. What they will get is to radicalize me. It will cost them because I am not radical. But I have clear ideas. The arguments that I have that in the end we will understand each other lose strength because we see how they do it to us whenever they can.
Can what has happened in any way strengthen the links between the pro-independence parties or can it give more strength to this movement, which was now a bit down?
If we are smart, it will reinforce Junts and make other parties see that they have to reflect because they are going after us, that when they suck up to them they do it to weaken the Catalan nationalist movement, not pro-independence. This has the very serious complicity of a part of the socialists of Catalonia. Not all of them, because I know that there are some who are upset with what has happened. And it is also done with the complicity of this new PP. We need the state obedience parties to have a different attitude towards Catalonia.
