The amnesty debate heated up the hitherto placid Barcelona municipal politics yesterday. Once again, as it has been for some time, the atmosphere was extremely tense in the City Council meeting.
The session approved a proposal by Junts and ERC for the Spanish Courts to process as soon as possible a law that basically exempts all those involved in the process. The sovereign initiative received the go-ahead thanks to the support of BComú councilors. The PSC, PP and Vox voted against it. To avoid having to find themselves in this uncomfortable trio, the Socialists tried to agree on an alternative text that was much kinder to Pedro Sánchez and much more critical of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. But seeing that their proposal had no chance of gaining the support of the pro-independence parties, they cited procedural issues and withdrew it from the plenary agenda at the last moment. The populars were also clear that their proposal, completely opposed to any amnesty, also had no hope of passing any vote, but they preferred to present it with the aim of animating and staging this passionate debate even more.
These votes are mostly symbolic, but they are by no means futile. Traditionally the groups try to put the city at the center of all their discussions. But sometimes national issues play crucial roles. The proclamation of 155 broke the first government pact of communes and socialists, that of Ada Colau’s first mandate, despite the fact that both tried to avoid it, to stay out of it.
After the unexpected, surprising and also virulent proclamation of the socialist Jaume Collboni as the new mayor, the political life of Barcelona gradually decreased in intensity. In fact, despite not having more than ten councillors, the municipal executive experienced a rather placid summer, much more so than its predecessors. It was necessary to let everything go back to normal. And the negotiations on possible coalition governments are so far so incipient that they hardly generated any criticism. With the talks on the next budgets, more or less the same thing is happening. The truth is that few politicians move as easily in the field of variable geometry as Mayor Collboni. The first municipal commissions already showed their ability to unite with one or the other depending on the issue.
But everything related to the process creates discomfort, stirs feelings and overcomes strategic issues. And for sure the tension on this side of Plaça Sant Jaume would have multiplied if the referendum had been put on the table. Xavier Trias from the Junts benches ended his intervention by handing out slaps. He told the socialists that they had disappointed him, once again. To the commons, that equidistance is unsustainable, after all. And to the people, what they will have to do is ask for forgiveness for trying to destroy it so many times with very bad arts.
The republican Ernest Maragall also accused the socialist councilors of political weakness and subordination. “It is difficult to understand the silence of the PSC – he stated. The question is how we close the stage of repression and open the stage of democratic solution”.
The popular Daniel Sirera replied verbatim that against the vice of asking is the virtue of not giving. “What happened in Catalonia was very serious – he said. It caused companies to flee, divided Catalan society, attacked democracy. The right of self-determination does not exist in Catalonia”.
The deputy mayor Laia Bonet tried to get the socialist executive to pass without making much noise about these very difficult issues and said that the path to agreement requires the proclamation of Sánchez as president of the government of Spain, and that these moments “require prudence and discretion”.
Then Gonzalo de Oro-Pulido made it very clear that Vox will do whatever it takes to guarantee the unity of Spain.
