"Arx Tarpeia near the Capitol"

The Tarpeian rock is near the Capitol.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
30 May 2023 Tuesday 16:41
263 Reads
"Arx Tarpeia near the Capitol"

The Tarpeian rock is near the Capitol. It was so clear in ancient Rome that glory is ephemeral and that the ruler must always keep in mind that his scaffold is near. In republican Rome, just a few hundred meters from the seat.

The 28-M elections have passed and the popular victory has been resounding. But, before throwing the losers down the cliff, it would be good to remember that it is misleading to consider the mayoral elections as a first round of the general elections. In municipal elections, the candidate matters more than the party, even more than its ideology. At most, the only irrefutable thing after last Sunday is that the messianic verbiage of the new politics and the procés have been definitively left behind. Glad to hear it!

And it seems quite obvious that, as Machiavelli warned centuries ago, the dwarfing of leadership is typical of long periods of tranquility. As has been demonstrated in Barcelona, ​​when societies are lucky enough to live in quiet times, we can allow ourselves the luxury of having our great dramas have to do with whether the tram should go to Verdaguer or Paseo de Gràcia; whether there are few or many pickpockets and litter bins on the streets.

That the discussions in the campaign have been more rhetorical than real confirms it, in addition to the significant abstention, that, whoever the new mayor is, no one is going to reverse the traffic calming measures that have been started, or to suppress the extension of the bike lane or , as Don Quixote did celebrate, to encourage Barcelona to be a free city for knaves and brawls.

In the strictly Barcelona case, I have the impression that the campaign has certified that Ada Colau will have been a better candidate than mayor. Converted into a Superwoman of noble causes, for the incautious voter of her speeches, she was always detached from her whenever everything began with her: from investments in neighborhoods to housing policies. And, above all, that only she had known how to put the rich in line, ignoring the small detail that she owed her re-election to Manuel Valls.

After so many years marked by the culture of no to projects that would have made Barcelona a better city, I am glad that a new political cycle can finally open up, one that is more business friendly and tolerant of those who do not think like you or who simply live in it. upper Diagonal.

I found Ernest Maragall more empathetic, with whom I was fortunate to speak in Kreab and at the Col legi d'Enginyers. Despite my bias towards his age, Maragall exhibited exhaustive knowledge of the city and its challenges. He credited "having a trade." He has been of little use to him, since, as all the surveys indicated from the first day, his moment had passed and the immorality of blocking his path four years ago soon became clear that it was already irreparable.

A very different case has been that of Xavier Trias and his surprising victory. Trias is a gentleman from Barcelona, ​​sensible and a gentleman, the father-in-law we all wish we had. Only he has been able to capitalize on his boredom with Colau's highly ideologized and paternalistic leadership. Due to the affection I have for him and the friendship that binds me to some of his councillors, I only wish that if he succeeds in taking the mayor's stick, he can be himself and deploy the program without interference from the most ultramontane sector of his party, which, Until very recently, it is precisely the one that cut the Meridiana.

As for Jaume Collboni, who due to age and experience has been considered to be the best positioned to be mayor, in the end he has won ten councillors, but he has fallen short. His tightrope walking simultaneously combining his role as a government and as an alternative is likely to have generated some confusion, unintelligible to those eager for change. In the coming days we will see his ability to rebuild bridges with the left or his availability to resurrect the socio-vergence, so typical of the metropolitan oasis.

Whatever happens in Barcelona, ​​given the blue tide that has been imposed everywhere, Pedro Sánchez has only been able to call elections for next July 23. Perhaps he knows that Arx Tarpeia awaits him. Even so, I from Núñez Feijóo, would not get too close to the ravine either. It is not going to be that, as often happens, one votes with his head in his town and with his heart in the general elections.