Ada Colau’s last attempt to set up a left-wing government and wrest the mayorship of Barcelona from Xavier Trias fell apart in a few hours yesterday. Neither socialists nor republicans seem willing to share with the common people the rod of command of the city during the next mandate. In addition, the forms and manners distilled by the commons in these conversations have not done either one or the other a bit of grace either.
In the early hours of the morning, in an interview granted to RTVE, the still mayor of the city proposed an unprecedented idea for these times: a shared mayorship no less than three parties. The republican Ernest Maragall would take the baton during the first year of the mandate, Colau herself would do it the following year and a half, and during the last eighteen months of the legislature, the most succulent, it would be the turn of the socialist Jaume Collboni.
Afterwards, in her morning interview, the number one on the BComú list recalled that Trias won the elections by very few votes, she listed all the evils that, according to her, are already hovering over Barcelona, ??she said several times that had already considered sharing the mayorship between socialists and republicans, that the initiative was maturing…
But the response of the PSC and ERC could not have been colder. Shortly afterwards, sources from the two formations pointed out that commenting on a hypothesis is not the same as working on a government proposal, that these matters are more delicate and complex, which entail that everyone sits at the same table. In addition, shortly after the end of Colau’s interview, the supposed programmatic axes of this tripartite were published on the website of another media outlet.
This leak was particularly badly received by Republicans. They did not like to learn in this way about the pillars of the next three-way municipal government, of their supposed shared municipal government. At least that was what they implied.
“And on top of that, the PSC dissociates itself from this document, so that…”. “Explaining things on television and Twitter are not the ways.” “Maragall has not received any proposal, neither unilateral nor consensual”. “Maragall and Colau only saw each other on May 31. And Colau didn’t give him any documents.” “This is not a real proposal, and we will not study it until it is.”
Those from ERC feel that the communes are trying to blame them for their own failures, that they intend to make them responsible for Trias being proclaimed mayor of Barcelona. And the truth is that neither Maragall nor Trias hides that these days their conversations flow very naturally. In fact, the Betevé television channel found them drinking coffee yesterday after Colau’s interview ended.
And in the face of growing outrage, BComú sources had to clarify that “the proposal has been known to both the PSC and the ERC for days”. BComú sources added that the proposal was made public yesterday. “But they have known her for quite some time. They have had the document for less than a while, but at the moment we will not specify more details”. That much, anyway, they didn’t want to specify.
The socialists also did not like the way of proceeding of the still mayoress. But seeing how their proposal quickly fell apart they began to see it as an opportunity. A few days ago, Collboni and his family saw everything more or less lost. On Friday, the popular Daniel Sirera said that if Collboni managed to convince the communes to support him without entering the municipal government, he would give him his four votes. You have to have a lot of faith to think that this is how you can conquer a mayorship. But now that there is the possibility that a challenge by Vox to the count will delay the investiture session of the new mayor until July 7, the socialists feel that they can take a little more advantage of this unexpected extension.
“Proposals like this would not be understood by progressive voters and would not contribute to the stability or the rigor that the City Council and the citizens deserve – replied shortly before lunchtime number three on the PSC’s Barcelona list, Laia Bonet–. Barcelona needs a strong mayor to face its challenges. That is why the socialists will present our own candidacy and we will continue working to bring together a large majority in the mayor’s office”.
And the last to speak out on this issue were Junts. “Colau makes a last desperate move to save his neck – they pointed out in a statement, also before lunch, when the morning thunder was barely rumbling -, he does it exclusively as a key to personal survival. Barcelona voted in favor of the change. And the only guarantee of change is Xavier Trias as mayor, and that the city will once again be governed for everyone”.
