“Neither Collboni, nor Trias.” Vox will not participate in any bizarre operation to facilitate the mayoralty of Barcelona to anyone. This is how blunt the leaders of this party have expressed themselves before the rumor spread in the Catalan capital in the last hours that the two councilors who obtained their training last Sunday in the municipal elections help a combination to make the socialist candidate Jaume mayor Collboni.
This unlikely operation consisted of the two Vox councilors voting for the investiture of Collboni. With these two councilors, added to the 10 from the PSC and the 9 from BComú (9), the absolute majority of 21 that governs Barcelona would be reached. Despite the fact that some political formation has put this bizarre strategy to use, not even the Vox leaders themselves give it any viability or credibility and frame it in the interest of some parties to push for agreements.
The strategy that Vox will follow in this municipal legislature, where they make their debut as a political group, is to “exercise a tough opposition” to the government that is finally constituted on June 17, the day the next mayor of Barcelona will be elected. The far-right formation is also working on preparing for the general elections on July 23 and assessing who will head the Vox list for Barcelona. In this sense, it seems ruled out that Ignacio Garriga, current leader of Vox in the Parliament of Catalonia, is the candidate for the general elections.
This is the third party that has been ruled out to participate in an operation to invest Jaume Collboni (PSC). The Socialists came second in Sunday’s elections after the Trias for Barcelona list and announced that they would seek support to reach the mayoralty. The first two options that the PSC had have been diluted after the ERC’s refusal to participate in a tripartite together with the party of the mayor Ada Colau, and the PP’s refusal to lend two of its four councilors.
For this reason, Xavier Trias’ path to the mayoralty seems clearer. The winner of the elections in Barcelona is negotiating a broad government agreement with ERC and PSC, but the electoral advance of 23-J may postpone the completion of the pacts until after the summer. In this case, Trias would be sworn in as mayor as the list with the most votes and would govern alone with his 11 councilors until the agreements that he can reach are applied.
