Collboni: "Mayor or nothing; I will not be second to anyone"

Jaume Collboni announced on Monday his decision to leave the municipal government to prepare the assault on the Barcelona mayor’s office in the May 28 elections. The PSC candidate assures in this interview that he is going for everything and with his conviction, that of the PSC and Moncloa that there are many possibilities of success.

A few months ago he said that the mandate would end. Why this change of opinion?

My goal is to be the next mayor of Barcelona and replace Mrs. Colau, and the most honest, coherent and free way to explain my proposals was to resign from public office and dedicate myself one hundred percent to the campaign. My goal is to be mayor or nothing. I’m going for it all and I believe that the cleanest, most honest and coherent way, without altering the institutional functioning of the City Council, was to resign from office and dedicate myself with complete freedom and availability to the goal of being the new mayor. .

Mayor or nothing does it mean that you don’t see another four as deputy mayor, as deputy to another?

My goal is not to be deputy mayor, but mayor. I’m not running to be second to anyone. We perceive that the people want a change in the city, to open a new stage and my party and I are in a position to open this new stage that the people are demanding, to overcome a certain disenchantment and the loss of self-esteem in the city. I have accumulated enough experience, knowledge of the city and the institution and I feel with all the energy and enthusiasm to make it possible. We are people of our word, we keep our word and, therefore, the operation of the institution will remain at a stage in which the major decisions of the mandate have already been taken and the investments are planned.

Is that freedom to explain your proposal also freedom to openly criticize the mayoress?

I don’t want to campaign against anyone. I have a very defined city project that I think is shared by the majority of Barcelona men and women, which is consistent with the history of Barcelona’s socialist mayors. What I will do is talk about the new projects for the city and the things that have to be rectified because they have not worked. I will be a very pragmatic mayor, one of solutions. The city needs leadership from the center, very focused on solving day-to-day problems.

What is the first thing you would rectify?

I have proposed a very clear alternative to the superblocks as they are being carried out: to recover the block interior plan that the socialist governments developed. We can provide urban greenery without substantially altering the Cerdà plan and that is compatible with pacifying streets. The city has been doing it for 40 years: Avenida Gaudí, Avenida Mistral, Portal de l’Àngel… I am surprised that someone says that what is now is a great novelty. Projects such as Via Laietana or Girona street have been on the table for 15 years. What is being done now is not a superblock and I believe that it will not work, that it is not viable in the Eixample. The same objectives of pacification and clean air can be achieved by being more coherent, as was done with the interiors of blocks in the socialist period.

Were the party leadership and Moncloa aware of your decision and did they share it? Since when?

This is a decision that is the product of personal and political reflection. The personal part is non-transferable, it is a decision that I make as a candidate for mayor because I believe that it is the clearest and most coherent way to explain my proposals. And it is a political decision shared with the leadership of the party, both at the Spanish federal level and at the national level of Catalonia.

Socialist success or failure in the May 28 elections will depend to a large extent on what happens in Barcelona. Do you feel the pressure?

I am convinced that we will win the elections in Barcelona and in Catalonia and, indeed, I am very aware of the responsibility that we have in Barcelona for what the city means for the Spanish socialist project of President Sánchez.

In what situation are the socialist councilors in a government from which their leader leaves? It does not seem that a minimum mutual trust can be maintained

The mandate, from the point of view of big decisions, is over. Before an election, all governments go into campaign mode. What you have to do is ensure that the city works properly.

In retrospect, do you think the way you communicated your decision to the mayor was a mistake?

No. I think it was the way to explain a decision of this importance without altering the word given or opening an unnecessary debate. From the point of view of the ordinary functioning of the institution, it has no effect.

Has this government lasted four years because there was a distribution of powers and areas and the two partners have tried not to invade someone else’s house?

This government has managed a very complex stage. At first we avoided making the city subject to the independence process and the formation of the government coalition had to do with that objective. And then it has been a mandate very marked by the pandemic. We have spent two years trying to save lives and jobs. And, despite the difficulties, we have approved four budgets not only with the support of ERC, but also on two occasions with that of Mr. Valls’s group and once with that of Junts, and even with the abstention of the PP.

But in the final stretch, very deep discrepancies have surfaced.

When the reactivation of the city has taken place, it is true that divergences have surfaced, for example with the airport, the Hermitage project or the way to pacify the streets of the city. But the PSC has maintained a stability that, for example, our neighbors in Plaza Sant Jaume, Junts and ERC, have not been able to preserve. Let this serve as a warning of what can happen in four months if the independentistas take control of the City Council.

Colau and Trias are fueling a polarization of these elections, the mayoress on the one hand and the former mayor assuming in a way the role of anti-Colau. Where is Jaume Collboni?

I will represent the future. They are protagonists of the past.

Trias is the past?

Man, it’s very obvious.

And Colou too?

Man, too. They have both been mayors, they have had their chance, they have done good and bad things and they have all my respect, but they are the past. Neither Mrs. Colau nor Mr. Trias are those of 2015. Mr. Trias has the support of a party led by a fugitive from justice named Puigdemont and by a lady with problems with the law named Laura Borràs. My question is: Will a pro-independence mayor give more or less confidence to international investors? Will he have better or worse relations with the State? Will it make it possible or not for us to have summits like the Spanish-French one in the city? Trias and Colau are the photo of the past and I will make proposals for the future. I represent the best tradition of socialist governments but I will not campaign looking in the rear-view mirror.

Would the next mayor of Barcelona have to be the head of the most voted list?

The next mayor of Barcelona has to win the elections, the popular vote, and win the election within the City Council. But the previous one is to win the elections in popular votes.

It will be essential to agree. Are you willing to do it with Trias? Or to repeat the formula of these four years with the roles reversed? Or to form a tripartite? Is any of these three options valid?

I will be a progressive mayor. At the moment the PSC is the central party in Catalonia and we have the possibility of reaching agreements to articulate majorities that can be of very different formulations. With whom I will not agree is with the extremists, not with Vox or with the CUP. Let the people speak and based on popular expression we will articulate a majority.