The PP candidate for mayor of Barcelona, Daniel Sirera, has presented his program for the municipal elections on May 28 in the Casa Seat auditorium, where he has starred in an interview included in the cycle that La Vanguardia and Barcelona Global have organized to publicize the proposals of the different mayors.
In conversation with the deputy director of La Vanguardia Enric Sierra and after the presentation of the businessman Javier Pérez -Tenessa, from Barcelona Global, Sirera has announced that his intention is to govern, for which reason he has set himself the goal of being part of the municipal government team to come out of the polls, in which he aspires to double the representation of the PP in the City Council and go from the two current councilors to a minimum of four.
When the time comes, Sirera will have to choose, as he ironized, between "the scare or death" of Jaume Collboni, from the PSC, and Xavier Trias, from Junts, which are the only two lists with which the PP is willing to negotiate a government pact for Barcelona, since it rules out any understanding with the commons of Ada Colau or the republicans of Ernest Maragall, since, in the mayor's opinion, they represent populism and independence, his two "red lines" to establish alliances.
But from there, what Sirera is clear about is that he wants to govern and that his councilors, if they are decisive, will become part of the municipal team. "The PP is a government party and its aspiration is, therefore, to govern," the candidate has emphatically stated, who has returned to the first political line led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo after 15 years.
Although on some occasions it has given external support to minority mayors, the PP has never participated in the different government coalitions in the Catalan capital, so Sirera's announcement represents a turn in the traditional position of the party in Barcelona and responds to the change that Feijóo is trying to print to the PP in Catalonia, a key piece in his aspirations to reach Moncloa.
As has been seen in Andalusia, where the PP has achieved an absolute majority at the hands of Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, "it is not a biblical curse", Sirera has insisted, that the popular cannot govern in Barcelona or Catalonia. And the first step, as Sirera has recognized, is to become part of a municipal government so that, later on, based on the management experience that they could present to the citizens, they can consider leading it. "The key is not to ask for anything for the PP, but for Barcelona."
As for the programmatic keys, Sirera has outlined her proposals for Barcelona in a conversation in which some of the attendees have also been able to ask questions, who have been interested in issues such as social innovation and quality of life, the attraction of talent and investments, culture, tourism and commerce, urban planning and housing or mobility and decarbonisation of the city.
"There is land to build between 40,000 and 50,000 apartments in the Zona Franca or La Sagrera", Sirera reiterated as his main proposal in terms of housing, a competition that, he recalled, is autonomous and that would have to be developed by opening Barcelona, with some very narrow territorial limits, to the metropolitan area. In any case, for the PP candidate, measures such as capping rental prices do not serve to solve the problem, one of the main ones in Barcelona.
"If the third runway does not arrive, it is because the City Council and the Generalitat put sticks in the wheels, it is not Madrid's fault," he stated in relation to the expansion of the airport, for which he has proposed "moving 300 meters" to the Ricarda lagoon , which, despite being in a protected and particularly fragile area from an environmental point of view such as the Llobregat delta, he recalled, "is artificial" and, in his opinion, can be modified.
Regarding the attraction of talent and the creation of companies, Sirera lamented that in Barcelona and in general in Catalonia many taxes are paid, compared to other areas of Spain: "Entrepreneurs who go from Barcelona to Madrid or Malaga already They don't come back, because here there are many bureaucratic obstacles and many taxes", argued the mayor of the PP, who has placed the emphasis on transcending ideologies and increasing security, reversing tactical urbanism, lowering taxes and putting "red carpet and band of music" to tourism, which represents 15% of Barcelona's GDP.
"We have to promote businesses, not prohibit them with use plans. Commercial diversity cannot be imposed. It is an unhealthy will of the left to control what you can do and cannot do", Sirera has prescribed in business matters, which has been declared a liberal, so his bet is for competition and letting the market regulate the activity without administrative impositions. Also in terms of housing, where the arrival of digital nomads in Barcelona, who already account for 48% of the rents, is for Sirera the consequence of belonging to the European Union, a model, he ironized, "better than that of Cuba or Venezuela".
But perhaps the most striking proposal has been the impromptu idea that the expansion of the Clínic be carried out on La Modelo, which architecturally is not of great interest to Sirera, and not on the land at the exit of Diagonal currently planned: "We could study it, why not talk about it", he has suggested, although he has recognized that it is an idea that he does not have very elaborated: "At least we do not close ourselves off", he concluded.
And another ingenious initiative was suggested to Sirera by a question from a Nike executive about the measures to promote the Catalan capital to develop as a knowledge hub: "The Barcelona brand must be promoted, everything must be done so that Barcelona is in the world, and it wouldn't be bad, and I'll leave it to you as a suggestion, that Nike could make Nike Barcelona, it would be fantastic".
