This Monday, former mayor Xavier Trias marked his distance from Mayor Jaume Collboni and announced that his people will mount a very tough opposition even after his own departure. The winner of the last municipal elections in Barcelona gave a conference in the afternoon at the El Born cultural center on the current state and future of the city, and did not want the headlines around the date of his announcement and more or less next march will overshadow an eminently political message.
When the time comes, he will tell when he leaves politics. Meanwhile, those of Junts will reject the municipal budget proposal of the Socialists, they will have no qualms about addressing them to a question of trust, and everything indicates that in this way they will now more or less definitively put an end to any possibility of entering the City Council government. In the end even Trias ran out of patience. Because it is one thing to talk, he said, and another to negotiate, really negotiate.
So the head of the Barcelona opposition focused most of his intervention yesterday on attacking Collboni, in a much more pronounced way than usual. On this occasion he didn't have any regard. He said once, twice and many times that he does not trust the socialist, that he cannot do it, that he does not find a way. “The priority must always be Barcelona. “I have zero confidence in Collboni, but I have all of it in Barcelona.”
And he openly accused him of once again winning in the offices what he did not win at the polls, of subordinating the interests of Barcelona to his own and those of his, of condemning the city to a minority government that in truth has no other choice. objective than to survive, even if it is crawling, even if it is wasting the opportunities of citizens. “We have acted with a single priority: Barcelona. But I think the current mayor has other priorities that are not Barcelona.”
It seems the only good news in recent months is that former mayor Ada Colau does not hold government responsibilities. But this consolation is completely insufficient. Trias also said that Collboni does nothing other than follow in Colau's footsteps. It is a continuous government, he said. In a few circles these words constitute a very serious accusation, one of the worst that can be made.
“The elections of May 28 were not about left or right, not even about independence or unionism. They were about change or continuity. To do new things, or to continue with the same thing.” And Trias also highlighted that on top of that the situation in Barcelona is getting worse every day, much worse than just a year ago, in security, housing, inequalities... “That Colau is not mayor took pressure off the city and the public debate. With this Collboni believes that it is enough for him. But it is not enough to be the lesser evil... The mayor of Barcelona cannot be the lesser evil.”
And this time Trias was neither elegant nor angry. He didn't put on airs of gentelman nor did he tell anyone to get upset. This time he looked hurt, deeply hurt and disappointed. The former mayor has already swallowed saliva a few times, he has already come to terms with how this summer the mayor's office was taken from him at the last moment. But in the end he got tired of being made dizzy.
The good harmony between Trias and Collboni is one of the characteristic notes of the current mandate, a good treatment aired especially by the socialist, who always likes to highlight his points of understanding, recognize his status as former mayor and underline his willingness to dialogue. But in the end the post-convergents got fed up with the socialists' displays of courtesy, they really seemed like the witticisms of a boyfriend who does not dare to take the definitive step or even to recognize it.
Because the main objective of Trias and his people in the face of this mandate was always to mark a turning point, to foster a new era that would leave Colauism behind, to make possible the change that the people of Barcelona asked for. And to do this they had to enter the executive. But Collboni has long been more in favor of negotiating point by point than of sharing the government. And so Trias concludes that the change that Barcelonans ask for cannot be achieved.
