The announcement made today by Ada Colau to stand for re-election again and to run for a third and final term as mayor of Barcelona was expected news since, more than a year ago, the leader of Barcelona en Comú left this possibility that will force its political formation to apply the exceptionality clause contemplated in its code of ethics, which as a general principle establishes a limitation of two mandates.
Colau's decision is the logical consequence of a combination of factors, among which, above all, the need for the commons to continue counting on their main and perhaps only great electoral value stands out in elections that, as happened three years ago, are presented a priori tremendously even and with options of victory for at least three candidates, those of BComú, ERC and the PSC.
If Colau had applied to the letter the commitment with which he became mayor in the 2015 elections (not being in office for more than eight years) he would have left his people in a situation of absolute helplessness, without any option of revalidate the mayor's office and, very probably, condemned in the best of cases to become the junior partner of a government presided over by a republican or socialist mayor. That is the first reason why the mayor has responded with a yes to her party's request
There is no alternative to Ada Colau in the ranks of the commons. In the seven years that she has been in the mayor's office, the personality of the former activist of the Platform of People Affected by Mortgages, a political figure capable of provoking whirlwinds of passion for and against, has eliminated any possibility of the appearance of new leadership. Not even a glimpse of a relief with guarantees on a very distant horizon. Thus, all the options of BComú, and consequently many jobs in the local administration, go through a good result in the 2023 elections that allow the commons to continue in the city government, either by retaining the mayor's office or becoming an essential partner for the mayor of another political formation
The carom that allowed Ada Colau to keep the mayor's office three years ago served the main objective (to stay in power) but left her with a wound that has never fully healed. Colau carries the backpack -which the carrier herself was responsible for making very heavy- of having agreed to the second term with the votes of former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, precisely the candidate who campaigned demanding the vote to prevent Colau from continuing to govern, but who in the end gave away his votes to prevent Barcelona from having a pro-independence mayor. The mayor aspires to get rid of the thorn that stuck in her three years ago.
This is the argument used today by Ada Colau to explain her decision to run for a third term. The mayor had been paving the way for a long time to justify the extension with allusions to the exceptional period that she has had to govern, marked by the pandemic and the economic and social crisis it caused. Some unexpected circumstances that, according to Colau, are reason enough to complete a third term, twelve years to finish radically changing a city model that, paradoxes of fate, were largely built by the socialists, their government partners throughout this term and part of the former. Colau hopes to leave the mayor's office in 2027, or perhaps before, with projects such as the union of the trams along the Diagonal or the transformation of the Eixample through the superblocks practically ready.
Ada Colau has assumed a firm commitment to the new reconstruction project of the forces to the left of the PSOE led by Yolanda Díaz. The Vice President of the Spanish Government was one of the first political figures who publicly took Colau's decision to re-present himself for granted, specifically on Sant Jordi day. The complicated task that Yolanda Díaz has before her urgently needs some consolidated references and, in this sense, the help of Ada Colau in the new adventure is essential.
Since the middle of her first term, Ada Colau has been projecting her figure in international forums, especially those linked to large cities. The mayor feels comfortable in this area, where her acknowledgments tend to be more accommodating than she is in her own city, where she is much more subject to daily criticism and the verdict of the citizens. That satisfaction that she finds beyond the Spanish borders has insistently fueled well-founded rumors about a future for Ada Colau in some international organization. That option remains, for now, parked... at least until May 28, 2023. Later, and depending on the result of the elections, we will see.
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