Mayor Jaume Collboni now hopes to approve his budget proposal on May 2. As was more or less announced for days, the socialists only found the support of the Republican councilors in the plenary session of the Barcelona City Council this Friday. The opposition overturned its bills proposal upon final approval. The PSC executive has no other option but to resort to the issue of trust.
And Mayor Collboni did not hesitate to hold former mayor Ada Colau and her people directly responsible for the rejection of his accounts. “I have never seen so much irresponsibility,” he snapped. His attitude overthrew up to three progressive budgets in a few days,” he added, also referring to the budgets of the Generalitat and the State. “But I tell you that Barcelona will have its new budgets approved this spring, on May 2.”
Yes, this Wednesday the extraordinary municipal plenary session will take place that will launch the issue of trust. Opposition councilors will then have 30 days to propose a candidacy for the alternative mayor with a sufficient majority. It seems highly unlikely that a motion of censure can go ahead. Afterwards, the municipal government’s budget proposal will be approved automatically.
The truth is that the morning’s political debate passed in an unusually moderate manner. Given the circumstances, one expected that the spokespersons for the municipal groups would be much more aggressive. Colau insisted that the commons cannot give another blank check to the socialists while they show so much desire to dismantle the legacy of the two previous mandates. “Their strategy is to make me responsible for everything, but they do nothing but prove that we cannot support them again.”
Ramon Tramosa, from Junts, lamented that in his opinion the socialists are very given to talking, much less to truly negotiating. The Republican Elisenda Alamany reproached the common people for putting their own interests before those of the people of Barcelona. The popular Daniel Sirera stressed that these budgets will never activate the economy: “the destructive spirit of Colau continues there.” Gonzalo de Oro, from Vox, said that these accounts are a cut and paste of the common ones.
