Ernest Maragall reiterated yesterday that "the natural and correct order" is for Xavier Trias, the winner, "to take the initiative to explore the various possibilities on the table to form a government." "We will talk to everyone, but I understand that this is the natural scenario," the Republican mayor commented this morning at the ERC headquarters.
Previously, the president of this formation, Oriol Junqueras, has made it clear that the priority is Trias, that it is time to "recompose consensus in the independence movement" and that "we have no interest in offering Collboni the mayor's office", the second most voted but only 141 votes apart from BComú.
Maragall already spoke with Trias on Sunday night to congratulate him and they agreed that they would immediately have a first conversation. "Now it is a matter of elucidating the meeting points and the distances, seeing the real possibilities of reaching or not reaching agreements, based on this we will make decisions", commented the politician, disappointed by the results, but with the relative consolation of knowing a coveted piece on the chessboard of the future government.
ERC has gone from having excellent results, from winning the 2019 elections with ten councillors, to falling by half. However, the victory four years ago was bittersweet as Manuel Valls took a step against nature by supporting the investiture of Ada Colau and thus facilitating a government between the commoners and the socialists to veto the access of the independence party to the mayoralty.
Maragall has insisted that now it is time to “adhere to the legitimacy that Trias has earned and its ability to lead the right conversations. It is not a question of him or I personally understanding each other or not, but of defining objectives, strategies for the city and joint political behavior to see how far we can go, it is time to measure our possibilities and our distances”.
After intense weeks of campaigning, the ERC leader in Barcelona stated that he was willing to "close this cycle well". “I want to do well from the point of view of the general interest of the city, Barcelona needs a stable, strong and ambitious government, for this reason we must have clear strategies that the public understands and accepts”, stated Maragall.
