Create economic activity, quality jobs, so that Barcelona recovers its self-esteem and its citizens their enthusiasm. This is in summary the recipe of the Junts candidate for mayor of the Catalan capital, Xavier Trias, who has intervened in the cycle of lunches-discussion with the heads of the list in the municipal elections organized by the Círculo Ecuestre.
Trias has moved with skill, as if he were a seasoned tightrope walker, before an audience that can share his economic proposals and in matters as delicate as security and housing, but that can also throw his political affiliation in his face.
In this sense, to the question of whether he is pro-independence, the mayor who aspires to recover municipal power has responded unhesitatingly with a yes, although without hiding his usual pragmatism he has hinted that he does not contemplate the independence of Catalonia on the near horizon and that his objective as mayor will be “to work to have as little dependency as possible”, both on the State and on the Generalitat itself.
The Junts candidate has once again made clear the personal nature that he wants to imprint on his candidacy, which he also hopes to attract to the PDeCat in the coming days, and insisted that he is not a candidate under the orders of the former president of the Generalitast Carles Puigdemont , of which he has assured that the only thing he has asked of him is that he win the elections.
In the talk he had with the journalist from La Vanguardia Joaquín Luna, Xavier Trias did not shy away from labeling Mayor Colau as the antithesis. He has reiterated that if he achieves the objective of recovering the mayoralty of Barcelona, ??he will rectify some of the policies promoted by the leader of the commons in the eight years in charge of the City Council: the obligation to reserve 30% of new constructions or large housing renovations social; the tourist accommodation plan that prevents five-star hotels from being built in a large area of ??the city, or the tram connection on the Diagonal, which he has stated that he would not complete in the section from Plaza Verdaguer to Francesc Macià.
The main message that Trias wanted to convey today is that the next mayor of Barcelona must combat discouragement and the loss of self-esteem among citizens. For this, he has insisted that economic activity must be generated, well-paid jobs so that Barcelona is “a low cost city”. “The mayor of Barcelona – he has stated – has to take his suitcase and go around the world to promote the city around the world, attract investment and, at the same time, help the businessmen here to sell their products”.
The mayor has also referred to the inevitable post-electoral pacts for the formation of a government. Asked about the possibility of the socialist Jaume Collboni being his first deputy mayor, he also answered clearly: “If he wants to, yes.” In this sense, he has admitted that he would have no problem agreeing with the PSC or ERC and that the only combination that he does not admit is an agreement with Ada Colau.
