He joined Barcelona City Council as a technician in the early seventies. He made the jump to municipal politics thanks to his brother, Mayor Pasqual Maragall, and was a key player in the socialist governments of the city. Heading the ERC candidacy, he won an election in 2019, but an unusual three-way carambola (Manuel Valls, BComú and PSC) prevented him from being mayor. Four years of soft opposition to the government of Ada Colau and then a sharp fall in the last elections. On Friday, Ernest Maragall i Mira (Barcelona, ??1943) says goodbye to what has been his home for more than half his life.

He was surprised by the time and context in which he announced his farewell. Is it a 100 percent personal decision?

It is a personal decision discussed with the person concerned. The specification of the date has been based on a certain environment and certain circumstances. The City Council lives in an eternal provisionality that in our case advised us not to stay installed, but to offer ERC and Barcelona the maximum capacity to prepare the project and for new leadership to emerge.

Mayor Collboni doesn’t seem to feel uncomfortable with this provisionality…

It seemed that there could be a direct link between the political agreements in Catalonia and the State, and what could happen in Barcelona, ??but this has not been the case and paralysis, immobility has prevailed. He is comfortable with renouncing a budget, defining a city governance strategy, deciding which policy we adopt in housing, tourism, mobility, major infrastructures. Is this the price we have to pay for this government’s refusal to take the initiative and define its alliances? The comfort of the government has a price that is Barcelona, ??a price that all citizens are paying.

The city’s economic indicators are not bad…

The model that the current government defends facilitates success in certain sectors, but what is serious and terrible is that this model is compatible with the increase in inequality.

What do you think the role of ERC in Barcelona should be in the next three and a half years?

This decision will have to be made by ERC, and it will be made freely, conscientiously, with all the elements of judgment on the table.

Do you see any possibility of an agreement between the PSC, BComú and ERC?

The first answer to this question should be given by a socialist mayor who seems to be more interested in prolonging the provisional period and, incidentally, renouncing the real governance of the city.

Leave the City Council. Leave politics too?

As a citizen and as an ERC affiliate, no. Catalonia has experienced a period of exception that seems to have ended. We are entering a new period, but what is not clear is the role played by Barcelona. The attitude of the current local government is a direct detriment to the city.

What is the best memory you take away from your time at City Hall?

Lots of. I have been in the City Council for more years as a professional than as a politician. I have good memories, especially of the Olympic period and the city’s transformation.

The worst, having won an election and not being mayor…

This is a very marked moment.

I hard to beat.

It is part of the possible scenarios posed by the current rules of the political game we have in the city and the country, however horrible or unnatural it may be.

Practicing constructive opposition to the Colau government condemned them at the polls?

Yes, clearly. Just when we were starting a path of distancing ourselves from the government, with the negotiation of the budget for 2022, that interested connection was generated between the budgets of the City Council and the Generalitat and we ended up exercising institutional responsibility. This evidenced the renunciation of exercising a critical alternative to Mrs. Colau, it was the turning point that placed us on impossible ground to appear as an alternative to the elections.

And in a climate of plebiscite on Ada Colau, the award went to Xavier Trias.

exactly Neither he nor his political force had appeared for four years, but they had an exit bonus that they knew how to play and that must be respected and valued

Is your conclusion that Barcelona is not going through a good time?

There is a bipolarity. We have very good news, fantastic events and, at the same time, a reality of unacceptable social fragmentation.

The evil of all cities.

It’s true, Barcelona is becoming more and more like any other big city, it shares the same problems. But this should not console us nor should we resign ourselves.

It is still paradoxical that inequalities have not been reduced in a few years of the government of a party that made the fight against inequalities a banner.

Of course, inequalities have not reduced. We have had governments characterized by an excess of ideology, an obvious lack of results in terms of equality and the failure of policies such as housing.