The last attempt to reach an agreement with BComú that would allow the Barcelona City Council’s budget for this year to be approved tomorrow in tomorrow’s plenary session has today led to an expected failure. In the last meeting held this morning, to which both parties attended with zero hope, the party led by former mayor Ada Colau has certified its resounding rejection of the accounts agreed upon by the PSC and ERC. The impossibility of gaining an absolute majority forces the socialist mayor Jaume Collboni to submit to a question of confidence in order to be able to have at the end of April the budget that the rest of the opposition groups will reject tomorrow.
The commons confirmed this morning, after meeting with the Deputy Mayor for Economy and Finance, Jordi Valls, the decision adopted last night by a very large majority by the formation’s plenary session. According to Ada Colau’s party, “the PSC has not brought any proposal regarding the mandate or the governability of Barcelona to the last meeting.”
The truth is that the socialists have been faithful to the word given by Mayor Collboni from the first day: before talking about a possible government pact, the budget for 2024 had to be resolved. Collboni’s “step by step” that His former government partners have not accepted. And this despite the fact that the PSC has managed to get the 5 ERC councilors to support the budget project tomorrow. It so happens that since the day of Collboni’s investiture, BComú has been insisting that a left-wing pact in the City Council should integrate the Republicans, with whom the commons now maintain a terrible relationship aggravated by their decision to not supporting the budgets of the Generalitat, which accelerated the calling of early elections by President Pere Aragonès.
The commoners accuse the socialists of being “immobile” and regret that their gesture of facilitating the investiture – which the Popular Party also did – has not been reciprocated. BComú also promoted the initial processing of the City Council’s budget, support conditional on that government agreement that has not ultimately materialized.
The commons regret that during this first year of mandate, Collboni “has threatened to roll back progressive policies” of the mandates chaired by Ada Colau, and make explicit reference to the 30% reserve for protected housing, the green axes or the Vila Veïna care.
The socialists have preferred not to enter into disputes with the commons today and reserve all their artillery for a plenary session tomorrow that promises to be marked by tension between the two formations. In the same way that BComú does not forgive Collboni for wanting to review some of its flagship measures, the mayor does not ignore the attempted disapproval harassed by the commoners in a plenary session of the City Council.
On March 8, the PSC sent BComú a document with a budget counterproposal to try to overcome Ada Colau’s resistance. The document in question proposes providing up to 8 million euros this year and 27 million throughout the mandate with a budget item for the purchase of residential buildings to allocate them to affordable rental apartments; continue with the rehabilitation of homes in the Besós-Maresme area, with the commitment to reach at least 500; guarantee the protection of heritage buildings with an investment program of at least 20 million in 2024 and 90 million in the mandate.
The socialists’ proposal also includes the commitment to maintain the 30% reserve in protected housing, but making it effective (the PSC suggests monetizing the measure, applying the value of that 30% to the construction of social housing, but without the need to do so in the same promotion).
The PSC also committed to favoring a substantial reduction in tourist apartments, especially in the Ciutat Vella district, and to maintain the prohibition on creating new hotel beds in the center of Barcelona, ??except in singular cases.
With regard to tourism management, the idea of ??the PSC transferred to the commons was to manage the arrival of cruise ships by reducing the number of ladder cruises and favoring home port cruises, as well as increasing the municipal surcharge by €0.75, up to 4 euros, the legal maximum, for visitors from short-stay cruises.
Regarding the green transformation of the city, the socialists insist in the document delivered to the commons on giving priority to the care and organization of public space, continuing the pacification of streets and space, replacing the tactical urban planning of the Sant Antoni ring road with a definitive one; pacify Rosselló Street between Josep Tarradellas Avenue and Villarroel Avenue; continue with the transformation of Meridiana Avenue to Fabra i Puig throughout the mandate, allocating 3.5 million euros in 2024 and 26 million during the mandate and drafting the executive project of the reform up to the Sarajevo bridge; allocate 6 million euros this year and 21.3 million in the four years of mandate to the transformation of the Mar Bella promenade; reform the Rambla del Carmel and accelerate the transformation of the Rambla.
The document rejected by BComú also included nods to the commons, such as an expansion of the network of bike lanes with the cycle paths of Paseo Joan de Borbó, Travessera de Les Corts and Santander Bridge, among others; ensure the connection of the tram through the reception of the executive project in July 2024 and “work on the construction of a political and social agreement that guarantees a broad consensus” on this means of transportation. Socialist sources estimate that this document includes at least 90% of BComú’s programmatic proposals, about 90 million euros for this year and 300 million for the total mandate.