The whole of Madrid spreads out in a perfect radial parade towards the rest of the Spanish geography on this May weekend. The capital commemorates the uprising against the French occupation by sunbathing on the beaches of the peninsula. It is the last break before the battle of 28-M, in turn a prelude to the general elections at the end of the year (some have already marked December 3 on the calendar). A good part of what is considered to be the periphery from the center is fundamental to the aspirations of the left. And, especially, the triangle that goes from the Valencian Community to the Balearic Islands passing through Barcelona. In this city, which was recovering its self-esteem these days with the visit of illustrious people (Susan Sarandon, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Spielberg and Barack Obama), cards are being shuffled that will mark Spanish politics. Although its candidates refer more to the past than to the future, Barcelona is a lever of change.

That Ada Colau retains the mayoralty would give Yolanda Díaz strength against Podemos. Both parties have parked hostilities until after the municipal ones. They will negotiate the lists of the generals once they measure their forces on 28-M. Podemos could participate in a new coalition government, but given the friction between the purples and their partners in Sumar and the PSOE, it could also end up splitting later and form its own parliamentary group. Just in case, you need to guarantee starting positions on the lists and have as many deputies as possible in Congress. Díaz plays authority in Barcelona through Colau and in the Community of Madrid through Mònica García.

The result in the Catalan capital could also definitively break the blocks of the Parliament around independence. It took more than five years after the events of 2017 to crack the wall between the ERC and the PSC, thanks to the agreement on the latest budgets, highly criticized by Junts per Catalunya, which considers it proof of the “betrayal” of the Republicans against the cause. But Barcelona could be a turning point if a pact between the socialist Jaume Collboni and the list headed by Xavier Trias materializes, in whatever order. The former mayor is willing to reach an agreement with the PSC, while Salvador Illa has been building bridges with Junts, with an eye not only on Barcelona, ​​but also on the Provincial Council. The competition is so close in the Catalan capital that a tie that favors the distribution of the mandate in two years for both mayors cannot be ruled out.

A Trias agreement with the Socialists would dismantle the confrontational discourse advocated by Carles Puigdemont and Laura Borràs (although separately) and would provide strength to those who defend in Junts that it is necessary to recover the skills of the old Convergència without renouncing independence for this reason , including that of negotiating areas of institutional power and political concessions for Catalonia. If Trias achieved the mayoralty, that sector could force the internal pulse in Junts and try to influence the candidacy for the generals, so that the formation opens up to agreements with Pedro Sánchez, something that Puigdemont opposes right now frontal. Even if Sánchez does not need the votes of Junts, it is in his interest to have more possible allies, although a strong rivalry could break out between Junts and ERC when it comes to demanding concessions from the Government in exchange for their parliamentary support, as happened in Catalonia between Esquerra and CiU during the negotiation of the Statute with Zapatero.

If a phrase symbolizes the Madrid collective imagination, it is the one that says “from Madrid, to heaven”. They attribute it to the playwright Luis Quiñones de Buenavente, others to the transformation from a Castilian village to a capital driven largely by Carlos III. Or, simply, it could have been a copy of the rubble “from Paris, aux paradis”. To reach the sky of Moncloa, however, requires a good walk around the periphery, with a particularly exciting stop in Barcelona.