On the electoral ballot for May 28, the face of Xavier Trias will appear, which is more important than any acronym, starting with those of his party, Junts, hidden on purpose. He is not the first to do so, before the faces of Pablo Iglesias, Ada Colau, Manuela Carmena, Ãñigo Errejón and Carles Puigdemont were elevated to symbols. In the case of the converging veteran politician, one does not have to be very perceptive to guess, in this operation, an explicit desire to place his candidacy beyond any ideology, in a kind of limbo that, in the manner of the classic catch-alls party, catch all the votes of those motivated against Collauism and its possible continuity.
It is paradoxical that, when we need more politics, someone trusts so much in post-politics to try to win the elections. Because Trias’s messages – underlining her distance from Colau’s decisions and her desire to throw her out of power – end up reducing everything to a vague promise of “another management†for “another Barcelonaâ€. It could be argued that Trias’s politics is, purely and simply, her mood. The best thing about the Junts candidate is the little rejection that he generates among voters that he is not close to, something relevant when there are so many undecideds. Trias’ close and open nature for dialogue takes the place of a clear ideology that Junts cannot provide today, especially if he has to compete for votes with Jaume Collboni and Ernest Maragall.
It is said – I have written it myself – that Trias seeks, in some way, the resurrection of that Convergència that a sector of the Barcelona electorate still lacks, orphaned of a brand with which to identify. The agreement that Trias has closed with the PDECat points in that direction and represents a nod to the past and an idea of ​​intelligible moderation, but little programmatic content. However, the more I listen to Trias’s interventions, the more convinced I am that he tries to fly well under the radar of ideologies and political brands, including the hologram of a new Convergència.
In the ideological axis, the current lack of definition of Trias exceeds that of the classic convergents. He proclaims himself a social democrat while advocating measures more typical of a liberal, all without fear of appearing frivolous. The same thing happens when, landing on the concrete, he affirms that he does not want the tram, but he has a former minister, Damià Calvet, on his list, who is in favor of this means of transport. On the national axis, the Trias campaign is rehearsing a blackout of those that make an era: in addition to avoiding pro-independence messages – he already warned – he walks so in profile for the most difficult issue that it could seem Martian, due to silence and absence of demonstrations with star.
Will Trias’s post-political bet be productive in votes? The cross on this side is what Junts and Laura Borrà s can do until the day of the elections. Because the mixture of post-politics and anti-politics tends to produce a strange and indigestible substance.
