Ernest Maragall says that Barcelona City Council has to regain complicity with the productive fabric. "I am willing to start from scratch," he adds. The ERC mayor participated this Wednesday in the fifth of the colloquia that are taking place these weeks with the main candidates for mayor of the Catalan capital, organized by Barcelona Oberta, the Gremi de Restauració and La Vanguardia.
Perhaps his words may seem forced, given the hosts and also the positions defended by his group this mandate. We talked, for example, about his defense of certain terrace restrictions that were triggering many complaints. Or of his reluctance to extend the festive days in which large commercial establishments can open. But Maragall was comfortable among restaurateurs and merchants. “Commerce and restaurants are part of the identity of this city. And we must take care of identity. To give stability and viability to trade and restaurants, we need a new attitude. I will assume the responsibility of leading this new complicity”. In fact, he made a couple of jokes. And he did it about being comfortable without backing down once, without denying what he had done up to now, hardly mentioning the mayoress Ada Colau. At no time did he want to hide the fact that during these years he tried a few times to overtake the mayoress on the left. Nor that on many important occasions he supported this government.
So Maragall neither provided great headlines nor did he get anything out of any top hat. He is not a friend of these eccentricities. “Expand the airport? To begin with, we have to correct its low cost character, improve its connectivity with the business centers of interest in California and Asia. And the final decision cannot be made unilaterally from Madrid”.
And it is also true that all the candidates who are passing through here advocate recovering private collaboration, the search for consensus and, of course, complicity with the productive fabric. But Maragall made clear his predisposition to talk about everything with everyone, and also that everyone will not like what he says.
