The mayor of the PP in Barcelona, Daniel Sirera, yesterday presented his program for the municipal councils at Casa Seat, where he starred in one of the interviews in the cycle organized by Barcelona Global and La Vanguardia to publicize the parties' proposals main
In a conversation with Enric Sierra, deputy editor of the newspaper, the popular candidate announced that he wants to govern and that he aspires, therefore, to enter the governing team that leaves the polls in May, since he hopes to double the representation of the PP and get four councilors.
When the time comes, he quipped, he will have to choose between the "fright or death" of the socialist Jaume Collboni, who "is part of the problem", or the post-convergent Xavier Trias, who "wasn't a good mayor", but not he considers giving his support neither to Ada Colau's communes, which he describes as populists, nor to Ernest Maragall's republicans, due to his pro-independence ideology.
With these "red lines", the key for the PP, if its votes are decisive, will be its program, which Sirera developed based on the questions of the attendees in six areas of action: social innovation and the quality of life, the attraction of talent and investments, culture, tourism and trade, urban planning and housing, and mobility and the decarbonisation of the city.
"There is land to build between 40,000 and 50,000 flats in the Zona Franca or in the Sagrera", he said about the housing problem, which should be addressed, from his point of view, with a metropolitan perspective because of the shortage of land in the municipal area of Barcelona.
In terms of infrastructure, Sirera accused both the City Council and the Generalitat of putting "sticks in the wheels" of the airport expansion and proposed to "move the Ricarda 300 meters" to build the third runway. Despite the fragile ecological balance of the Llobregat delta, the PP mayor added that it is an "artificial lake" and that the birds would be given time to readapt.
After insisting on his demands to hire a thousand urban guards to improve security, reverse tactical urban planning and forget about the tram connection along Diagonal or lower taxes and eliminate bureaucracy as conditions for a pact of government with the PSC or Junts, Sirera vindicated himself as a liberal politician and proposed to let the market and competition resolve economic vicissitudes.
"We must promote businesses instead of prohibiting their opening with the application of use plans. Commercial diversity cannot be imposed. It is a sick will of the left to control what can and cannot be done", argued the candidate.
And in this sense, Sirera refuted that the arrival of digital nomads with great purchasing power has shot up rents in a gentrification process: "You have to realize that we are in the European Union and not in Cuba or Venezuela ", defended the PP mayor, who insisted that "Barcelona will be touristic or not", because tourism represents 15% of its GDP. So, in his opinion, "red carpet and marching band".
