The narrow victory of Xavier Trias will not prevent him, in his opinion, from regaining the mayorship because he sees himself able to unite the wills of those who have demanded a change in Barcelona and does not predict an alternative majority that will sweep his way. The Junts candidate does not see recourse to a pact of the PSC, BComú and ERC nor to another, more complex one, of socialists and communes endorsed by the PP, in a maneuver reminiscent of that of the group of Manuel Valls in 2019 who made the batlessa in Ada Colau when the Republican Ernest Maragall won the elections.
“I am the winner of these elections and now we need to find the possible agreements to be able to govern”, Trias said yesterday to El Món on RAC1. “I think we will find ways to understand each other among all those who have asked for change, which is what the people are asking for, I am very convinced”, he added, addressing socialists and republicans, with whom he wants to make an agreement to be mayor . “We have a good collaboration – he reiterated – I will talk to them to see how things can be done”.
Trias believes that the PSC candidates, Jaume Collboni, and ERC, Ernest Maragall, will end up responding positively to their offer instead of looking for another type of agreement that closes the door to the mayor’s office. “I don’t believe it and I don’t want to believe it”, he said in relation to this alternative pact. “Whoever wins, as Maragall said, is the one who has to take the initiative, make the offers and see if we are able to govern”, recalled Trias, who promised to face this task “with generosity” and thinking of “the interests of the city”. Four years ago, he warned, “a very negative situation occurred, the Valls operation, which everyone is very sorry for”.
The change is to open a new stage without the current mayoress and her training in government, according to Trias. “That of Mrs. Colau is not a change”, he warned. “When Collboni says he wants to make a change – he insisted – I understand that there is a need to find new formulas of agreement to make it possible”. He also denied that there was a pre-election pact to govern with the PSC.
Of Maragall, Trias said that “he is a serious person who has clear ideas of what should and should not be done”. And he criticized that four years ago “they made a very important mistake, they left him without the possibility of being mayor in a way that I think was quite shameful”. Junts’ candidate leaves the door open to different forms of collaboration, which do not necessarily have to involve a coalition executive. “Everything is possible,” he said. I already governed with 14 councilors. How you get appointed is one thing and how you function afterwards. We will study all the possibilities”. In any case, he stressed that his intention is that the solution chosen does not “create difficult situations for us throughout the mandate; this consists of making a strong government, not a weak one”.
