In May 2010, the people of Barcelona (only 12% of those who were called to the polls) decided that neither of the two proposals (rambla or boulevard) put forward by the socialist mayor Jordi Hereu for the reform of the central section of the Diagonal was not valid. In that referendum, a preview of the PSC's defeat in the 2011 elections, the two options that provided for the passage of the tram through Diagonal were rejected. Xavier Trias, then in the opposition, actively campaigned against the city government's proposals and, when he became mayor the following year, he undertook the reform of the avenue, logically without a tram. Now, with the works underway between Glòries and Verdaguer squares, the Trias candidate for Barcelona is very clear that if he succeeds in regaining the mayorship, the works will stop in Verdaguer and the connection of Trambaix with Trambesòs will not be completed. What's more, he is so convinced that the majority of Barcelona residents share his opinion that he does not rule out raising, "if they bother me a lot", a new consultation on the tram, a consultation in which he, once again, would promote no to the train light
Trias took part yesterday in the Objective Barcelona interview series organized by Barcelona Global with La Vanguardia at Casa Seat in an event moderated by the deputy director of this newspaper Enric Sierra and introduced by Carmina Ganyet, member of the executive commission of Barcelona Global . At the event, Trias' desire to present himself as the only candidate who can agglutinate the vote necessary to remove Ada Colau from the mayor's office and thus promote a change of course in the city, a role that he denied both to the socialist Jaume Collboni and to the republican Ernest Maragall.
The candidate chosen by Junts to regain power in the Catalan capital described the tram as a "mistake" and confessed that he personally does not feel in a position to "explain to the people that we will rebuild the Diagonal". The tramway is, according to him, a business that favors a specific company, "an old-fashioned thing", despite the fact that members of his party, among them the former Councilor for Territory and member of his list, Damià Calvet, defended in his day the connection of Trambaix and Trambesòs by Diagonal. According to Trias, completing a streetcar connection that can be carried out effectively by other means, such as electric buses, would be a waste of money that is needed for other projects.
The former mayor was particularly critical of the urban planning and mobility policies promoted by Ada Colau, whom he accused of distorting the supervillage concept. His recipe for pacifying traffic in Barcelona is not to reverse the already almost finished works on the Eixample's green lanes but to "act with common sense". This formula would include the recovery for the loading and unloading of chamfers mutilated by the latest reforms.
In relation to housing, Trias advocated for a great city pact between the political formations and listening to civil society and the private sector to have a public housing stock for affordable rent that is large enough. He was in favor of revising the regulations that oblige private developers to set aside 30% of new works or major residential renovations for social housing, as he believes that this measure, despite being well-intentioned, has not worked.
