Jaume Collboni has shown during his first week as the new mayor of Barcelona that he is in a hurry to make it known that there is a change in the mayor’s office. His goal is to quickly differentiate himself from his predecessor and to silence the criticism that still resonates after the strange alliance (PSC, BComú and PP) that brought him to the mayor’s office. For this reason, Collboni has launched two firm messages of change in the first eight days. The first was the cleaning and safety shock plan this summer, with an iron fist included if necessary. The people of Barcelona suspended the previous government shared by the current mayor with former mayor Ada Colau in these two aspects. “Unlike then, now I have the last word”, explains Collboni. The new tenant of the mayor’s office refers to the fact that the position of mayor gives a lot of room for maneuver due to the executive nature granted to him by law, and this role he could not exercise when he was deputy mayor of Colau.
The second big decision has been to thoroughly remodel the municipal sub-government. Of all the changes, three stand out that look to break, we will see if only in appearance, with the past of the government of Ada Colau. Thus, he has dismissed the chief architect, Xavier Matilla, and the Housing and Mobility managers, Javier Buron and Manuel Valdés. These changes are significant because they affect the direction of areas that have been very controversial, such as tactical urbanism, the criticized promotion of public housing and the controversial war on the car. To redirect the course, Collboni has signed as chief architect Maria Buhigas, former councilor of ERC and collaborator of the Colau-Collboni government on some major projects, and Oriol Altisench, as chief engineer. He has also promoted positions that worked in areas governed by the PSC in the previous mandate, such as the new municipal manager, Albert Dalmau.
These new positions in the municipal structure have profiles that allow the door to be left open to future agreements to expand the government, especially towards BComú and ERC, but without yet ruling out Junts. In any case, Collboni wanted to stop the temptation of dogmatic deviations from these new technicians when he reminded them that their work must be based on agreements within the City Council, on consensus with the city and on metropolitan coordination. The new mayor thus sends an unequivocal message that the City Council cannot go its own way and that it must take into account the opinion of the political and social city. In addition, he asked them to remember that what Barcelona does has a metropolitan consequence that “affects everyone who comes to the city to work or enjoy it”. All this in a clear allusion to its predecessor.
Collboni has laid the foundations of his mandate and is waiting for the pacts that will arrive after the 23-J elections to remove him from his weak minority. For this reason, neither Trias nor Colau will leave the Consistory until they see what role they will have to play in the Barcelona game.
