Xavier Trias won the municipal elections in Barcelona last night and overturned the tie-breaker he maintained in the polls with the PSC candidate, Jaume Collboni, and the mayoress of BComú, Ada Colau. The ex-mayor dislodged the political board a few months ago when he announced that he would contest the battle for the mayorship and, despite the fact that the electoral campaign has not been particularly favorable to him, he has achieved a narrow victory.
Will Trias be the next mayor? It will be if PSC, BComú and ERC do not agree on a government to oust him. The possibility of a tripartite pact in Barcelona is possible, but difficult, especially because of the bad relations between the Socialists and the Republicans. Although the need of the PSC to recover its most emblematic mayorship and of the commons to preserve it could push them to seek an agreement to oust the winner, as they did four years ago with Ernest Maragall, and even split the position two years each. But in the equation they must have the approval of ERC, which described the 2019 agreement that allowed Colau to wrest the mayorship from Maragall as a “pact of shame”. For Republicans, only a high price would save the inconsistency of participating in an operation to prevent the winner from taking the mayor’s baton, especially if it is to prevent an independentist candidate from running for mayor. However, last night Maragall left the door open to a negotiation that takes into account his program.
Collboni was one of the architects of the pact made by Mayoress Colau four years ago and now he will try to repeat the operation to become mayor. The next few days will be important, in which the offices of the parties that will decide the vote for the investiture of the mayor on June 17 will come into play. In the post-electoral phase, the state leaders will play a role, who will think about the key to the general elections.
Whatever happens, the election result makes it clear that the main mission of the new mayor will be to reconcile a divided city. The parties that have obtained municipal representation must rebuild the great consensuses that helped Barcelona move forward with solidity. Trias said it yesterday in the speech, after learning of the victory: “Only if we unite will we be strong”, in a message addressed to the different souls of his party. And he promised to “collaborate with everyone to make a better Barcelona”. It will be the challenge of the next mayor, whoever he is.
