While Xavier Trias and Ernest Maragall discreetly close the pact that will ensure the investiture of the mayor of Junts, Jaume Collboni refuses to throw in the towel. Negotiations between Junts and ERC have been taking place for days, and sources from both formations admitted last night that the pact could be closed in the next few hours. It only remains to close some fringes. The investiture plenary session starts at five in the afternoon tomorrow and the two parties must first submit the agreement to the consultation of their respective bases.
While some have just outlined the conditions and balances of the new municipal government, with which Trias would ensure a more comfortable majority of 16 councilors instead of a solo government with eleven, Collboni insists. 48 hours before the investiture session, the socialist mayor yesterday asked in the most direct and clear way possible for the votes of the nine BComú councilors to be mayor: “I will form a government with the commons following the best tradition of socialist mayors since Pasqual Maragall; the commons must act conscientiously,” he insisted. What the Socialist mayor, who has been courting the PP for days, did not reveal, is who will provide the two votes necessary for the PSC and BComú to achieve an absolute majority and thus avoid the investiture of the most voted mayor, Xavier Trias.
These two essential votes for the socialists and commoners to add up to the 21 necessary councilors will be difficult for them to come from the PP, taking into account that yesterday its mayor, Daniel Sirera, ruled out investing Collboni if ??Ada Colau and the commoners are part of the future government. “We have spent the campaign saying that Ada Colau has to leave; And it’s not just about her, it’s about the politics of the commons, we ask that they not govern, that’s what we ask for,” Sirera said. Even so, Collboni took it for granted that with the vote of the common people he would be able to be mayor and form a government. “Barcelona has voted for change and has voted for progress”, insisted the socialist, who reiterated that “the commons have to be up to the task, just as we were in 2015 and 2019”.
Surrounded and applauded by councillors, positions and members of the leadership and party groups, Collboni repeated convinced that “if the common people support my inauguration, I will be mayor. We have the votes and, in these moments of uncertainty and confusion, the citizens of Barcelona must know that I will form a government of progress, open, open to dialogue and with a great future”, he assured. “We must be honest, two days before the municipal plenary there are only two options: a mayor of Junts in a minority or a mayor of the Socialist Party with the ability to advance and not go back.”
If Collboni took the feasibility of his proposal for granted –despite Sirera’s words–, Jordi Martí (BComú) was even more sure of the unfeasibility of this scenario. Martí responded in the most forceful way: “We will not make any kind of agreement that involves the PP; And every day that the PP signs a new agreement with Vox, it moves us further away from a pact; In no case what happens tomorrow will have nothing to do with the popular ones, ”he settled.
Martí was surprised by Collboni’s insistence and reiterated that, in addition to the “abysmal” distance that separates them from the popular ones, “the statements that their leaders are making give us even more reasons; They say that they will vote for any government that dismantles the legacy left by the commons, and we will not give Collboni votes to dismantle what we have done”, Martí settled.
The socialist mayor assured that “it is up to me to live up to the democratic mandate. Barcelona has voted for change, has voted for progress and has voted to open a new phase with a new mayor who will lead the majority of progress”. Although he acknowledged that “a government with commons was possible if ERC had wanted to provide support from the outset, but very soon, too soon, the ERC leader distanced himself, and now his most credible option is a pro-independence front,” he said. On the other hand, Martí regretted that Collboni did not want to negotiate this left-wing government. “We continue with our hands extended until the plenary session is held, we have put all the possibilities on the table with the utmost generosity, but we have not been able to negotiate because Collboni has repeatedly refused, we have insisted and he has said no.”
