Jaume Collboni has shown in his first week as the new mayor of Barcelona that he is in a hurry to show that there is a change in the mayor's office. His objective is to quickly differentiate himself from his predecessor and silence the criticism that still resonates after the strange alliance (PSC, BComú and PP) that led him to the mayor's office. For this reason, Collboni has launched two strong messages of change in his first eight days. The first, the crash plan for cleaning and security this summer, with a strong hand included if necessary. The people of Barcelona suspended the previous government that the current mayor shared with the former mayor Ada Colau in these two aspects. "Unlike then, now I have the last word," explains Collboni. The new tenant of the mayor's office refers to the fact that the position of mayor gives a lot of room for maneuver due to the executive nature that the law grants him and he could not exercise this role when he was deputy mayor.
The second big decision has been to thoroughly remodel the municipal sottogoverno. Of all the changes, three stand out that try to break, we'll see if only in appearance, with the past of the government of Ada Colau. Thus, he has dismissed the chief architect, Xavier Matilla, and the managers of Housing and Mobility, Javier Buron and Manuel Valdés. These relays are transcendental because they affect the direction of areas that have been highly controversial such as tactical urbanism, the criticized promotion of public housing and the controversial war on the car. To redirect the course, Collboni has hired Maria Buhigas, former ERC councilor and collaborator of the Colau-Collboni government on some large projects, as chief architect, and Oriol Altisench, as chief engineer. She has also risen to positions that worked in areas governed by the PSC in the previous term, such as the new municipal manager Albert Dalmau.
These brand new positions in the municipal structure have profiles that allow the door to be left open to future government expansion agreements, especially towards BComú and ERC, but without ruling out Junts yet. In any case, Collboni wanted to stop the temptation of dogmatic drift of these new technicians when he reminded them that his work must be based on agreements within the City Council, on consensus with the city and on metropolitan coordination. The new mayor thus sends an unequivocal message that the City Council cannot go its own way and that it must take into account the opinion of the political and social city. In addition, he asked them to remember that what Barcelona does has a metropolitan consequence that "affects all those who come to Barcelona to work or enjoy it". All this in a clear allusion to his predecessor. Collboni has laid the foundations for his mandate and is awaiting the pacts that will come after the 23-J elections to remove him from his weak minority. For this reason, neither Trias nor Colau will leave the Consistory until they see what role they have to play in the Barcelona game.
