The resolution of the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as president of the Spanish Government will not have an immediate effect on the configuration of a larger government majority than the current one – only 10 of the 41 councilors that make up the plenary council – in the Barcelona City Council. According to socialist sources consulted by La Vanguardia, almost certainly, the final composition of the municipal government will not be finalized until next spring, when the possible partners have decided what their dialogue with the PSC should be and who takes the reins in each case. of the respective groups.
The socialists believe that the agreement for Sánchez's investiture reinforces, not immediately but in the medium term, their options to govern in Barcelona without having to suffer more than necessary for not having more than a quarter of the elected councilors. “Now we have a choice,” says a prominent PSC leader in view of the fact that both Common and Junts and ERC have facilitated the revalidation of the position for the PSOE leader.
Despite being very aware that governing with 10 councilors is an impossible task (the presence in the districts is already suffering and is barely being covered thanks to the management structure) and that he would like to guarantee stability as soon as possible, The PSC does not want to rush into choosing a partner. Collboni will continue to deploy highly visible and effective policies that do not admit too much opposition (reinforcement of the cleaning and maintenance of public spaces, more presence of the Urban Guard on the street) or that generate easy agreements (shortening the deadlines for the reform of the Rambla, the coverage of the Ronda Dalt). He will, however, postpone issues that are difficult to reach consensus, such as the review of the PEUAT, the civility ordinance or the obligation to allocate 30% of new developments to social housing.
Before taking a step in one direction or another, a step that would allow them to approve, among other things, the 2024 municipal budget, the Socialists will wait for their potential partners to decide who assumes the leadership of the respective groups. Junts is the one who seems to have it clearest, or at least Xavier Trias, who has it very clear. The former mayor is exhausting his last months at the head of the group with the most councilors (11). His resignation from the record will not go, party sources say, beyond January or February. In fact, and despite having a team full of former councilors of the Generalitat, the former mayor and winner of the last elections is clear that Jordi Martí Galbis must be the one to take command, either to co-govern the city or to remain in the opposition.
The PSC has already noted the leading role of the spokesperson for Trias per Barcelona, a group with which Collboni, at least in the first five months of his mandate, has maintained a much more fluid and fruitful relationship than with BComú or ERC. This fact, which could be confirmed in the municipal commissions this week, does not presuppose anything regarding the formation of a government starting in the spring. This is certified by both the PSC and Junts. The nationalists also suspect that, despite the fact that the relationship between socialists and commoners is not going through its best moment, Jaume Collboni will be more inclined to seek a government agreement with Ada Colau –o. rather, with the successors of the former mayor – than for experiencing the latest version of sociovergence in Barcelona. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the original sin – the fact that Collboni, with the support of BComú and the PP, prevented the election of Trias – and the distorted image that a government in which the minority partner had the mayor's office would project are two serious obstacles to the success of the only sum of two that guarantees an absolute majority,
After the defeat in the municipal elections, BComú still has Ada Colau's succession pending resolution. This has not set a date for her farewell from the City Council but there is one certainty in the still unstable correlation of forces in municipal politics is that no one imagines who is the absolute reference of BComú as the first deputy mayor of Collboni. The more than likely departure of Jordi Martí Grau to Madrid to take up a position in the Ministry of Culture introduces, as if there were few, new questions in the future of this formation. Martí has been, first as municipal manager and the last four years as councilor, the most important political figure on Colau's team. Without the former mayor and without the main creator of it, an internal process could soon be opened to define a leadership that, according to some sources, could be disputed by the former heads of Urban Planning, Janet Sanz, and of Health, Gemma Tarafa.
ERC will also have to face the succession issue shortly. It was surprising that a few days ago Elisenda Alamany proclaimed that Ernest Maragall will not remain in the City Council for the entire term. Surprising not so much for the statement as for the fact that the announcement was not made by the current president of the group but by a councilor who, in the same press conference, stated that she will be the one who will assume leadership. One more symptom that the atmosphere in the republican federation of Barcelona remains heated. The PSC, which will not be hurt at all by the withdrawal of Ernest Maragall, a former socialist with whom it has historically had a stormy relationship, awaits events and to know, also in the case of ERC, who will be its interlocutor.
