It was already predicted that the Barcelona mayoral elections would be the tightest of all the different contests on 28-M and that there was a possibility that the constitution of the new plenum would be reached this Saturday without knowing who would be future mayor In view of the results, the only viable alternatives today are Xavier Trias and Jaume Collboni. What is already clear, and it was one of the great unknowns that these elections have resolved, is that Ada Colau has not been able to govern in a third term because the people of Barcelona have not given her this opportunity. In the last plenary session of the legislature held yesterday, the mayoress said goodbye with the pride of having been the first woman to take office in Barcelona and admitted that, whatever happens in the future, “what it is certain that I will not preside over the plenum again”.
“When I leave, all those who are against me will miss me”, commented Colau on the eve of the election. Surely some will miss her more than others, but it cannot be said that the management of the leader of Barcelona in Comú has left anyone indifferent. We will have time to more clearly analyze his work and to what extent his essential philosophy, consisting of an urban planning that is more focused on people and concerned about the climate crisis, has been more of a speech in front of the gallery than a reality . Colau has managed to focus attention on its super-blocks and the introduction of the tram, but the city’s general air pollution problem has not improved and the implementation of low-emission zones has failed. Nor has his hand been noticed in the dire housing situation, despite all his speeches.
It is true that from the first minute of Colau’s mandate there were intense campaigns against him, but it is also true that he did nothing to try to find a pact with a civil society that also deserved to be heard. One definition could be that Colau got the diagnosis right and what the Barcelona of the future should be like, but that he did not know how to put it into practice successfully and got lost in a radical dialectic. His successors would be wrong if they tried to dismantle the legacy he leaves behind. What it’s about is doing it better and looking for everyone’s consensus.
