The pact for the governability of Barcelona is on its way to becoming a constant source of surprises after results, last May, that allowed the socialist Jaume Collboni to win the mayor's baton despite coming second, behind Junts. If in recent weeks the PSC had thoroughly explored an agreement with those of Xavier Trias and Carles Puigdemont, now another correlation of forces is gaining strength: a pact of socialists, the commons of Ada Colau and Esquerra Republicana. Colau almost took it for granted this morning: “If you ask me: a left-wing government in Barcelona is imminent,” he said. in the program Here Catalonia of the SER Chain. “Is not difficult. ERC has had its internal process and the current managers have asked us for time to speak with their bases. The decision now belongs to the mayor and this weekend he told me that his first option is a broad and progressive government,” the former mayor clarified.
The meeting between Collboni and Colau, which would have turned the situation around, took place last Saturday. If a few weeks ago the government pact between the PSC and Junts seemed imminent (there are 21 councilors out of the 41 that make up the plenary session), since last Monday the meetings between the Socialists, Comuns and ERC have increased (they add up to 24).
“I know that the Collboni government proposed a pact with Xavier Trias, but we have always defended a left-wing government,” Colau said. “They have hesitated but this weekend I asked the mayor, directly, about his preference and he told me that he wanted a left-wing majority. In addition, talks between PSC and ERC have been unblocked. That there could be a majority of the left for us will not happen,” he concluded. “In the previous mandate, both ERC and the PSC did not want to talk to each other and we acted as mediators. I am now celebrating that these disagreements have been resolved,” the former mayor stressed. Colau has maintained that the Republicans must now be given time to ask their bases about the convenience, or not, of entering the municipal government of the Catalan capital.
Colau did not want to point out what the red lines that the common people have marked to enter the government. Even so, he has defended that if there is a coalition government in the Catalan council, he must continue with the project to unite the tram along Diagonal and with the controversial superblocks. Also with the measure that forces housing developers to allocate 30% of the apartments they build to social housing, a proposal highly questioned by the Collboni government. He has also called for the reduction of pollution and the use of private vehicles.
First Deputy Mayor
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Asked if she would be the next first deputy mayor of the municipal government, Colau threw the ball out: “I have not considered whether I will be the first deputy mayor or not. The first thing is the agreement and then distribute responsibilities. It is common for the second party to occupy the position of the first tenure but it is not the main thing.” The first deputy mayor at the moment is the socialist Laia Bonet. Colau has also claimed the possibility that a left-wing tripartite could govern the Generalitat after this year's elections.
The former mayor of Barcelona and leader of Junts per Catalunya in the City Council, Xavier Trias, has reacted to the announcement of the agreement between PSC, Comuns and ERC: “It would be a big mistake.” “This is not done with a Barcelona mentality, but rather it is done with a willingness to look further, to seek agreements for the future. And I think they are wrong,” he said in an interview this Monday on Rac1 collected by Europa Press.
Trias recalled that the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, ran for office saying that he would not collaborate with the former mayor and leader of BComú, Ada Colau, and that ERC said the same thing: “Now the opposite will probably happen.”
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