Great games of billiards on the day of the constitution of the town councils. Carambolas that many citizens will surely not fully understand, but which define the essence of the situation when there are five weeks left for a very decisive general election. Yesterday, the argumentative scripts of 23-J were drawn up. Central subjects: Vox and the independentists.
Let’s start with the most colorful carambola, the most discussed, the cloc-cloc that will continue to resonate for days: the socialist Jaume Collboni is the new batlle of Barcelona with the support of Barcelona en Comú (Sumar) and the final inclination of the Popular Party. Socialists, Sumar and PP. A curious triangle. Take a good look at it because you won’t be seeing it again for quite some time.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo hands over the mayorship of the capital of Catalonia – Spain’s second city – to Pedro Sánchez’s party in order not to be accused of double standards: an ally of Vox and a friend of the Catalan independence faction that dreams of reconstruction of Convergence and Union and with the return of the longed-for old days. The abstention of the PP was enough to facilitate the mayoralty to Dr. Xavier Trias i Vidal de Llobatera, a quantum independentist, since he is and is not at the same time. It all depends on what the observer wants to see. Abilities of the eternal convergent gene.
An abstention from the PP would have been very well received by the social sectors in Barcelona who have given a lot of support to Dr. Trias (version 2023) and who next month will be attracted by the candidacy of Núñez Feijóo for the presidency of the central government. It is the same social base in the districts with the highest income in Barcelona. Facilitating the Trias mayoralty meant investing in a new dialogue between the Spanish right and the leading groups of Catalan society who are committed to the restoration of the old balance between Madrid and Barcelona. A cautious return to 1996. But the Vox moment in Valencia and the formalization in Barcelona of a Junts-ERC appointment, with a hint of a pro-independence common front, have not made it easy for Feijóo to choose the Florentine option.
The PP had been pondering what to do in Barcelona for days and the situation created these days in Valencia has tipped the balance. The enormous prominence acquired by Vox in the negotiation of the coalition government of the Valencian Community forced the popular people to make a swinging gesture. It was necessary to recover centrist oxygen. Facilitate the mayoralty for the socialists as a gesture of the State to prevent, for the third time in the last twelve years, Barcelona being governed by the pro-independence bloc.
The PP facilitates socialist mayorships in Barcelona and Vitoria to stop the Catalan and Basque independenceists. The Basque Nationalist Party also took part in the blockade of EH Bildu in Vitoria, the administrative capital of the Basque Country. In Navarre, the PSOE has given the mayorship of Pamplona to the Unió del Poble Navarrès so that it is not occupied by Bildu.
Constitutionalist odes will be read today in the Madrid press. The PP agrees with Vox and slows down the pro-independence parties. It’s not a bad message for his hardest electoral. Borja Sémper, campaign spokesperson, has defined it as an “example of political responsibility”.
The PSOE gets Barcelona, ??which was one of its main objectives. The Collboni mayor’s office does not repair the serious damage suffered on 28-M, but indicates that the Socialist Party is still alive and able to weave difficult agreements and balances. The anger of the Catalan and Basque independenceists, very visible last night, helps the Socialists to correct their position on the board after the PP’s fierce campaign for parliamentary agreements with Bildu.
The most difficult role corresponded to the commons, interested in the formation of a left-wing tripartite government with PSC and ERC in Barcelona, ??giving the mayorship to Collboni. After the beating suffered at the municipal offices, Esquerra was not interested in this photo. There has been a lot of internal discussion in the commons and finally the more pragmatic position of the former cadres of Iniciativa per Catalunya, who are playing a very relevant role in the configuration of Sumar, has prevailed. Relations between this political space and Catalan and Basque independence are rapidly cooling and this is relevant for the next legislature. The departure from the political life of deputy Jaume Asens, former liaison officer with Carles Puigdemont’s environment, is very significant. Sumar does not have the same calligraphy as Podemos.
To facilitate triangulation, Ada Colau leaves the Barcelona City Council and the commons remain in opposition until further notice. The day, however, began yesterday in Catalonia with a loud bang on the small pool table in Ripoll, cradle of the Catalan national story. Once dry The mayor’s office of this city of ten thousand inhabitants has been conquered by a new political subject: the extreme right of Catalan nationalist parentage.
The Catalan Salvini has arrived – it was announced for some time that he would arrive – and it is a woman: Sílvia Orriols, at the head of a formation called Aliança Catalana. They only have Ripoll, in fact, but all of Catalonia is already talking about it. They are magnetizing a part of Junts per Catalunya. The executive of this party, spiritually guided by Puigdemont from Brussels, wanted to block Orriols and give the vote to the ERC candidate, but Junts councilors ignored this indication yesterday.
The pro-independence bloc has once again been left without Barcelona and shows signs of disintegration on the right flank. Frustrated and angry at the failure of the process, part of their base is now rediscovering a new internal enemy: Muslim immigration.
As a whole – contradictory as a whole – Spain is leaning to the right.
