The works in the Eixample superilla have marked the final stretch of Ada Colau’s mandate and it is clear that they will be one of the central issues of the electoral campaign. As a result of this scenario, the candidate of the PSC for the mayorship of Barcelona wanted to express himself clearly during his speech at the cycle of lunches-colloquium with the leaders of the lists of the municipal elections organized by the CÃrculo Ecuestre.
For Jaume Collboni, the next mandate must be to “wait and endure the changes”, without entering into more large-scale works until the effects of the transformation of streets such as Consell de Cent and Girona are clear. “There is no going back, but if I am mayor there will be no more works for the next four years, except for the recovery of green spaces in the interior of the islands”, assured Collboni during the conversation held with the deputy director of La Vanguardia Enric Sierra.
The socialist leader also incorporates a budget element to not continue developing Colau’s plan to convert up to 21 streets of the Eixample into green lanes. “It is economically unviable for the City Council, it would eat up the investment of two mandates without being able to do anything else in the rest of the city”, assured the until recently first deputy mayor, who acknowledged that if it were up to him he would not have done the works on the green axes, Via, the tramway, the Meridiana at the same time… “Because the final situation has been a blockage of mobility due to the accumulation of works”.
The same philosophy of putting the brakes on in order to move forward at a different pace is also carried over by the socialist mayor to the tram junction along Diagonal. According to Collboni, “common sense dictates that the connection must be made once it reaches Verdaguer”, but without the haste of Colau, who intends to start the work up to Francesc Macià as soon as the current ones are finished. For the PSC candidate, even though the tram has a guaranteed connection, after all the works that are underway the citizens deserve a breather. However, it defines it as a priority, just like the metro, despite the fact that in this case it is the responsibility of the Generalitat.
The development of Mayor Collboni’s city ideas brought together a large representation of the business and economic world of the Catalan capital, among which was the president of the CÃrculo Ecuestre, Antonio Delgado, and the vice president, Enrique. They also accompanied the candidate number two on the list, Maria Eugènia Gay; the still Councilor of Finance, Montserrat BallarÃn; the delegate of the Spanish Government in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto, and the former mayor NarcÃs Serra.
Faced with an electoral date in which Trias, Colau and Collboni are very tight in the polls, the socialist wanted to distance himself from the commons – “what separates us is the way of governing” – and, especially, from the candidacy that supports together “Would a pro-independence mayor have achieved new halls for Barcelona? And the America’s Cup?” asked the PSC candidate, convinced that “if Trias won the election, we would hear a champagne bottle being uncorked in Waterloo”, referring to Carles Puigdemont.
That the winner of the elections toasts the night of May 28 in the face of such close hypothetical results will depend on whether he can end up as mayor or if it happens to him like Ernest Maragall in 2019, when for the first time the winner of the elections in Barcelona did not go become mayor after the pact of the commons with the socialists and the support for the investiture of the party of Manuel Valls. “The historical situation of 2019 is not the one of now, I will respect the result of the elections and whoever wins will be mayor, it is the democratic principle”, concluded Collboni.
