Disappointment at the Estació del Nord, the venue for the ERC election night when confirming, from the first moments, the pronounced decline of the candidacy led by Ernest Maragall, which has gone from ten councilors in 2019 to five yesterday. The Republican option has garnered more than 74,600 votes, 11.22% of those at stake in Barcelona, ​​compared to almost 161,000 four years ago, when it gained the confidence of 21.4% of the electorate.

Maragall has not prevailed in any of the capital’s districts and, as the polls had indicated, the return of Xavier Trias, the great winner with his eleven councillors, has neutralized the options of the Republicans. In the 2019 elections, Junts obtained five councilors; on this occasion the results have been inverted in a day in which the participation was reduced to 60.64%, 5.53% points less than in the previous electoral appointment.

After Maragall’s first position in 2019, which did not elevate him to the mayor’s office due to the support of Manuel Valls’ formation for Ada Colau and the pact that BComú signed with the PSC, ERC yesterday obtained the same number of councilors as in the 2015, five. In 2011, he had hit rock bottom with just two reps.

“I have already congratulated Xavier Trias, the most voted, it is he who has the responsibility and initiative to try to lead a strong and stable government,” Maragall said in his appearance after 11:15 p.m. Head down, he lamented “the framework of right-wing in the whole of the State” with the entry of Vox in Barcelona and in many other municipalities. “We must be willing to actively contribute to offset this trend and preserve Barcelona”, he stressed.

Faced with “the threat of anti-Catalan forces – he added – it is necessary to ask for the unity of the Catalan forces to move the country and the city forward, we are in a position to share the construction of a sovereign climate, we are not giving up”.

He also expressed his willingness to put on the table of the next municipal government the proposals that he has defended during the electoral campaign.