Although he governs in a clear minority – only 10 of the 41 councilors of the Barcelona City Council –, the socialist Jaume Collboni is profiting from the status of mayor of the city that he acquired when he was invested in the position in June. At least this is the impression given by the municipal barometer presented yesterday, the result of field work carried out between November 15 and 24.
The survey commissioned by Barcelona City Council indicates that, if the municipal elections were held right now, the PSC would be the most likely winner. In addition, the survey carried out by the company Opinometer S.L. based on 825 telephone interviews, it shows a clear improvement in the opinion that Barcelona residents have of local government management, with six out of ten interviewees approving (considering it very good or normal), the highest proportion since June 2020 .
The barometer attributes to the Socialists a voting intention of 13.5%, a point and a half more than the result achieved in the last elections. In second place would be BComú, the formation led by ex-mayor Ada Colau, which at the moment is holding up well against the opposition, and to which the survey assigns an intention to vote in the local elections of 11.5% .
Third place would go to a recovered ERC, with an intention to vote of 8.2%, 1.4 points more than the poor result achieved in the May elections. According to this delivery of the municipal barometer, the formation that Ernest Maragall will no longer lead tomorrow would even be ahead of the other pro-independence force. It is the most surprising data of the survey. Barely having had real time to wear down the opposition, the Trias per Barcelona-Junts group, the winning candidacy of the last elections, would have a hard and surprising fall. The survey gives him a vote intention of 7.5%, six points less than in the elections that gave the victory, but not the mayorship, to Xavier Trias.
The barometer, which does not include an estimate of votes or seats, as is the norm in City Council polls, gives the PP a vote estimate of 2.5% (it is tradition for the Popular Party to have in polls a much lower result than what they get at the polls). It is the same voting intention of the CUP, a formation without representation in the Barcelona City Council. Vox does have some, on the other hand, which does not exceed 0.8% this time.
Although the mayor Collboni, in general terms, comes out of this survey with flying colors, it is Ernest Maragall, who tomorrow will make his farewell to the City Council official at the last plenary session of the year, the most valued municipal political leader , with a score of 5.3 out of 10, one tenth more than Xavier Trias. He also approves, in his case for the first time since June 2019, Jaume Collboni, with a score of 5.1. For the rest of the presidents of municipal groups, suspended: 4.3 for former mayoress Ada Colau; 3.2 for the popular Daniel Sirera and 2 for the leader of Vox, Gonzalo de Oro-Pulido.
The last barometer of 2023 shows that more than half of Barcelona residents, 52.7%, believe that the city has gotten worse in the last year, a much higher percentage than those who see an improvement (26, 8%). Even so, 55.6% are convinced that Barcelona will improve from now on.
Insecurity remains entrenched as the city’s number one problem according to its residents. It is mentioned as the most serious problem by 27.7% of respondents, the highest percentage in the series of the municipal barometer since December 2019. It is followed by the difficulties of accessing housing (cited spontaneously by 11.7% of those interviewed) and in third place, dirt (9.7%), just two tenths less than in the previous delivery of the barometer, corresponding to June, but with a notable improvement compared to the situation a year ago, when it was identified as the main problem by 15.8% of Barcelona residents.
With regard to the current issues included in the survey questionnaire, an immense majority, 91.7%, believe that the parties represented in the City Council have the obligation to reach consensus on the issues that most affect them the citizens They also widely agree that there is a need to increase collaboration between the City Council and other institutions and sectors of civil society, an opinion shared by 71.5% of interviewees.
Although, since the summer, it has been the flagship program of Jaume Collboni’s minority government, 61.2% of respondents have not heard of or are not aware of the Endreça plan, which revolves around a greater presence of the brigades of cleaning and the Urban Guard in the public space. Nevertheless, the postulates of this plan have broad citizen support. Thus, 69.6% strongly agree that the City Council should strengthen cleaning and maintenance services and 23.4% state that they quite agree. Barcelona residents also demand an increase in the presence of the Urban Police in the streets to guarantee coexistence (84% strongly or somewhat agree).
The barometer reveals almost absolute support for the government’s purpose of toughening penalties for people with uncivil behavior (86% of those interviewed strongly or somewhat agree) and an even higher percentage (89.1 %) consider that the lack of civility is an important problem in Barcelona.
