More than half a hundred representatives, the majority of the PSC and BComú, supervised the counting of votes in Barcelona on Friday. They played more than one for each of the twenty months, when other times the parties only sent two or three people. This has been the last chapter of an intense post-electoral week in which the PSC and BComú have put pressure in offices, social networks and appearances to create an alternative government to that of Xavier Trias, a possibility that is moving away in forced marches after the ERC's decision to prioritize a Catalanist front.
The republicans have left the negotiation with the mayor of Junts in the hands of Ernest Maragall - who with his five councilors became the priority target of socialists and commoners to weave the alternative to Xavier Trias on the same election night. However, the day after the elections, with the election results in hand and after Pedro Sánchez's unexpected announcement to advance the general elections to July 23, Oriol Junqueras already made it clear that there was no " neither interest nor will" to offer the mayorship of Barcelona to the PSC, and two days later he reiterated that ERC will prioritize agreements with independentists in town councils and councils.
Yesterday Pere Aragonès reiterated that he trusts Maragall to pilot the negotiations in Barcelona, "the decision he adopts will be the best for the city and for the country", he said in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio. "We have a model very far removed from what Collboni defends, we are at the antipodes", said Aragonès and although he also acknowledged that it has "notable differences" with the Xavier Trias project, he highlighted the coincidences.
Maragall and his team will now have to define what type of pact they sign with Junts and what schedule. Jaume Collboni's first option, that of setting up a three-party government with BComú and ERC, is thus ruled out. The pressure on the social networks of communes and socialists, first in favor of this progressive government to which ERC was integrated, has resulted in a campaign in which the two parties that until now governed Barcelona regret Maragall's support for the Junts government.
The intense post-election week culminated on Friday in Barcelona with the claimed vote count that finally offered no surprises and did confirm the results. The PSC incorporated 188 votes, so that it widens the difference with the communes – they are now separated by 342 votes – and thus consolidates its ten councilors (one more than those of BComú). In reality, the one who benefited most from the count was Junts, who added 244 more votes, while the commons lost thirteen ballots in the review of results. Yesterday, BComú considered asking the Electoral Board for clarifications to check again if their amendments to the material errors detected in Sunday night's count had been correctly collected.
In any case, the party pointed out that it was a review, not a challenge to the count, which would mean postponing the constitution of the City Council, which the calendar sets for Saturday, June 17, until the first chapter of week of July, when there would be a few days left before the start of the general election campaign.
So, except for a last-minute surprise, everything points to Trias being invested with the eleven votes of his party and that he would start with a municipal government in the minority to which ERC could later be incorporated, with which 16 of the 41 councilors of the full up; or with the PSC, with which he could govern with an absolute majority of 21 councilors. In fact, Trias has not ruled out any of the options. Nor have the PSC and BComú thrown in the towel to forge, once again, an alternative majority to the winner of the elections.
