Xavier Trias will not easily forget the maneuver that 100 days ago today prevented him from being sworn in as mayor of Barcelona. Although he does not rule out his support for large city projects, the leader of the main municipal opposition group does not see himself sharing the government with the PSC and is very critical of Jaume Collboni, whom he does not identify as the promoter of a change regarding the policies of Ada Colau.
Collboni has been at the helm of the mayor's office for 100 days. Are you one of those who have noticed a change or one of those who think that everything remains the same?
They say that Collboni has been in government for 100 days, but in reality he has been in office for 1,500. He speaks as if he were a newcomer, but he has been running the city for five and a half years and dealing with very important issues, such as mobility, security or economic promotion.
Don't you notice any change compared to Colau?
The forms. Colau had a serious problem with his forms. 80% of Barcelonans wanted a change and Mr. Collboni is not that change. He is doing an image operation, a makeup operation, he keeps saying that he is progressive. If being progressive means doing it as badly as in the last eight years, that is what progressivism is. He argues that to be progressive is to govern with the commoners. Colau could seem unfriendly to many people, but Mr. Collboni, even though he is nicer, I don't see that he can change many things if he governs with the commoners. The only possible change is the one that I offered: me as mayor and them governing with us and with ERC. They made a serious mistake.
Is it compatible to form a government with BComú and have the support of Trias?
How do you want that to be supported? If the PSC governs with the commons and ERC, especially with the commons, it is evident that we will be an opposition, a responsible opposition.
You governed four years as a minority. Do you see it possible that in the current circumstances Collboni can do it too?
Everything is possible. It depends on what they let him do. Collboni is trapped by the commons and we must remember that this man is mayor thanks to the PP. They may be a little embarrassed, but that's the reality. Things in Barcelona continue to go wrong because the mayor does not have the capacity to change them. People continue to see that the city is dirty, that security is a drama. You have to set the limits of what is tolerable. And it is not, for example, that the gentlemen of the PAH paint colors on the gentlemen who go to a congress (The District).
Is the possibility of Junts entering the government a door that you see closed firmly?
It is not that I see it closed, it is that Mr. Collboni, with whom I have a good relationship, in all his statements says that he wants to form a government with the commons.
But very few days ago, in the municipal commissions, the PSC said amen to all the Junts proposals...
Mr. Collboni and the city have a problem. Does the city govern with the ideas and mentality of the common people or with ours? Our proposals and those of the PSC coincide because the socialists come to our positions and because they realize that with Mrs. Colau's ideas things are going wrong. I really don't understand how he can govern with her.
What will Xavier Trias do when PSC and BComú end up agreeing?
We will be a tough and critical opposition. And I will leave, although not in the short term because I will be at City Hall for a while longer. But my vocation is not to remain as head of the opposition and I will not stay.
Is there any option for you to rethink your decision?
No. It would not make sense because in four years I will not be standing for election and, therefore, the logical thing is for my people to take the reins.
Will the composition of the Barcelona government depend on how Pedro Sánchez's investiture is resolved?
No, they are things that have nothing to do with each other. See if it has little to do with the fact that Mr. Collboni joined forces with the PP so that I would not be mayor.
What do you think will happen with the investiture of the president of the Spanish Government?
It is one thing what I want, that there is an understanding, and another is what may happen. Mr. Sánchez, the PSOE and the PSC must be clear about what Catalonia is. If they are not clear that it is a nation and the voices that call us coup plotters predominate, we are in trouble.
Is the formation of a government necessarily linked to the negotiation of the 2024 municipal budget or are they two different things?
It is impossible to separate one thing from the other. If you don't join the government you don't support the budget, it's common sense. If we have to be in the opposition, we will be in the opposition, nothing happens
With the change in the mayor's office, some city debates are being reviewed. For example, that of the tourism model. Is Barcelona at the limit of its capacity?
Like all tourist cities. Quality must be increased and that does not only mean that tourists with a lot of economic capacity come. Depending on what type of tourism we are not interested in and we should be very tough with it, keeping things very clear. For example, we have to be very tough on drug tourism. There are many people who maintain that nothing happens with marijuana. Let them go to the mental health centers and they will see that it causes a lot of problems for young people, that there is a generation that perhaps does not die as happened with heroin, but that is left disabled, and that is a very serious problem for a country.
What do you think will happen with the ruling against the green axis of Consell de Cent?
It will be necessary to reach an agreement with the promoters of the lawsuit and, above all, reflect on the way of doing things. You have to do them well, not how you want. Do we have to completely pacify eleven axes like Consell de Cent? It's stupid. Then we will wonder why people don't come to Barcelona.
During his time as mayor he tackled very important road reforms: Passeig de Gràcia, the central section of Diagonal, Passeig Sant Joan... Has the time come to put on the brakes?
Depending on where the reforms are carried out, there should not be any problems. What you cannot do is that, when you decide to reform Via Laietana or La Rambla, the works last four or six years. When we renovated Diagonal, my obsession was to keep Diagonal functioning, even though many technicians told me that the avenue would look better if we removed many trees.
Now the trees fall on their own...
What happens is that with the drought a wrong decision has been made. Not watering the trees is barbaric, it is destroying the city's heritage. Those trees could be irrigated with groundwater.
