The resolution of the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as president of the Spanish Government will not have an immediate effect on the configuration of a wider government majority than the current one - only 10 of the 41 councilors who make up the plenary council - in the City Council from Barcelona. According to socialist sources consulted by La Vanguardia, almost certainly, the final composition of the municipal government will not be finalized until the spring, when the possible partners have decided what their dialogue with the PSC should be and who will take the positions in each case. kingdoms of the respective groups.
The Socialists believe that the agreement for the investiture of Sánchez strengthens, not immediately, but in the medium term, their options to govern in Barcelona without having to suffer more than the account for only having a quarter of the elected councilors. "Now we have a choice", points out a prominent leader of the PSC, taking into account that both the commons and Junts and ERC have facilitated the revalidation of the position to the PSOE leader.
Despite being very aware that governing with 10 councilors is an impossible task (the presence in the districts is already suffering and is being covered with difficulty thanks to the management structure) and that he would like to guarantee stability as soon as possible better, the PSC does not want to rush the choice of the partner. Collboni will continue to deploy highly visible and effective policies that do not admit much opposition (reinforcement of the cleaning and maintenance of public space, more presence of the Urban Guard in the street) or that give rise to easy agreements (the reduction of the deadlines in the reform de la Rambla, coverage of Ronda Dalt). Instead, it will postpone issues of difficult consensus, such as the review of the PEUAT, the civics ordinance or the obligation to allocate 30% of new developments to social housing.
Before taking a step in one direction or another, a step that would allow them to pass, among other things, the 2024 municipal budget, the Socialists will wait for their potential partners to decide who takes the leadership of the respective groups. Together is what seems to have it the most clearly, or at least Xavier Trias, who has it very clearly. The former mayor spends his last months at the head of the group with the most councilors (11). His resignation on the record will not go beyond January or February, say party sources. In fact, and despite having a team full of former councilors from the Generalitat, the former mayor and winner of the last elections is clear that Jordi Martí Galbis must be the one to take command, either to co-govern the city or to maintain himself to the opposition
The PSC has already noticed this leading role of the spokesman for Trias for Barcelona, a formation with which Collboni, at least in the first five months of his mandate, has maintained a much more fluid and fruitful relationship than with BComú or ERC. This fact, which could be verified in the municipal commissions this week, does not presuppose anything regarding the formation of a government from the spring. This is certified by both the PSC and Junts. The nationalists also suspect that, despite the fact that the relationship between socialists and communes is not going through the best of times, Jaume Collboni will prefer to seek a government agreement with Ada Colau -or rather, with the successors of the ex-mayor- than to experience in Barcelona the latest version of sociovergence. In addition, there is no doubt that the original sin – the fact that Collboni, with the support of BComú and the PP, prevented the election of Trias – and the distorted image that would project a government in which the minority partner held the mayor's office , are two serious obstacles to the success of the only sum of two that guarantees the absolute majority.
After the defeat in the municipal elections, BComú still has Ada Colau's succession pending resolution. The ex-mayor has not set a date for her farewell to the City Council, but if there is one certainty in the still unstable correlation of forces in municipal politics, it is that no one can imagine who is the absolute reference of BComú as the first lieutenant of mayor of Collboni. The more than probable departure of Jordi Martí Grau to Madrid to take up a position in the Ministry of Culture introduces, if there were few, new questions in the future of this formation. Martí has been, first as municipal manager and for the last four years as a councillor, the most important political figure in the Colau team. Without the ex-mayor and without her main supporter, an internal process could be opened very soon to define a leadership that, according to some sources, could be contested by the former heads of Urbanism, Janet Sanz, and Health, Gemma Tarafa.
ERC will also have to deal with the succession issue very soon. It was surprising that a few days ago Elisenda Alamany proclaimed that Ernest Maragall will not be in the City Council for the entire term. Surprising not so much for the statement itself as for the fact that the announcement was not made by the current president of the group, but by a councilwoman who, in the same press conference, stated that she will be the one to assume the leadership. One more symptom that the atmosphere in the republican federation of Barcelona continues to be heated. The PSC, which will not be hurt at all by the withdrawal of Ernest Maragall, an ex-socialist with whom it has historically had a stormy relationship, is waiting for events and to know, also in the case of ERC, who will be its interlocutor.
