Yesterday’s approval of Barcelona’s budgets further opened the rift between the leader of the opposition and the mayor, between Xavier Trias and Jaume Collboni. The winner of the last elections accused the socialist mayor of subordinating the interests of Barcelona to those of the PSOE and Salvador Illa, his candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat.
The spokesman for the Junts municipal group, Jordi Martí, pointed out that “if the City Council already has an approved budget, it is only because neither Xavier Trias is Collboni, nor Junts is the PSC, that they are willing to do whatever it takes to guarantee – the armchair”.
Yesterday, the City Council approved the municipal accounts proposal of the Collboni government through a vote of confidence, automatically, after the opposition groups were not able to propose an alternative government majority in April.
We are talking about a little more than 3,800 million euros, “the most expansive and social budget in history”, according to the press release issued by the City Council, “to respond to the main public concerns, housing , the security or attention of the public space”.
The City Council also wanted to highlight that “municipal investment capacity will also grow to 777.6 million euros and will allow strategic actions to be carried out, such as the transformation of the Rambla, the coverage of the Ronda de Dalt, the reform of the market of the Abaceria, the school air conditioning plan or the Neighborhood Plan”.
In addition, this budget grows by 5.9% compared to the previous year, “and this is noticeable, above all, in the social investment, which reaches 438.7 million euros”. The second most prominent item is the one dedicated to the arrangement and attention of the public space. Security spending will add up to 396 million, which will mean an increase of 125 Urban Guard officers. The municipal government also emphasizes that the Consistory of Barcelona will be the one with the most investment capacity in all of Spain.
