Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

Barcelona, a missed opportunity

Ada Colau will remain in the position of Mayor of the Catalan capital, in a context difficult to imagine before the election campaign: With the eight votes in favour of the PSC, the three votes in favour of the candidature of former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, supported so far by Citizens, and the ten governors who obtained his list. ERC and Barcelona in Comú have the same number of councillors, but this second edition has won 5,000 votes less than the previous party and has lost the elections.

In fact, the composition of the municipal plenary has left a bitter taste to many people, as he saw the conflict between Barcelona in Comú (BeC) and ERC as an opportunity to change the alliance policies of recent years: to establish the background of combining the national and social axis, as majorities are being built, to move towards social justice and self-determination.
Beyond media noise, the reasons for this ending lie on both sides. First: The relatives of the Comuns did not want to lose the mayor's office and were relegated to a subordinate leadership of Ada Colau ERC – at best shared leadership – or to the opposition. If they acted in this way, they saw that their political capital was going to disappear, and that a barrier was being placed around a political space that is booming from the PSOE to the left throughout the state.

How will Ada Colau resist the blackmail of the PSC and Valls to take forward measures as important as the budget? What role will ERC play from the opposition, being the most voted party?

There's another nonpejorative factor: Influence or weight of the Initiative per Catalunya Verds (ICV) in the constitutive structure of the Comuns de Catalunya. The brand derived from the PSUC, which lives drowned by its debts to the banks, has debts of more than ten million euros to maintain its internal structure and maintain its public positions and salaries. The only way to maintain this situation was to agree with the PSC, traditionally the preferred partner, with the well-defined terms of the government agreement, which is still being negotiated, in order to bring the power agreement beyond the municipality: Specifically, the Metropolis and the Diputación General. In other words, they also govern the public institutions in which many of their trusted political positions work.

On the other side of this tragicomedy is ERC. The dependence of the former Convergence – by the procés – causes them to become excessively quick and dismal. Proof of this are the harsh oppositions that we have seen in the last legislature in the City Hall, in the media and in social networks, since any problem of the city has been used to oppose the management of Barcelona in Comú in a hard way, often resorting torpedo to his colleagues. For example, permanent blocking of proposals such as the road unification project or multiple consultation. ERC shared these two projects a priori, but they were shattered by purely electoral interests.

These factors and political calculations that are outside the general interest of citizens have been decisive and have made impossible the understanding that the city deserves. The result: The presence of Manuel Valls, representative of the financial powers, who has received the payment of the electoral campaign by several companies and banks; who has achieved the capacity to condition the city's policies and the centrality of politics, which does not correspond to what has been expressed in the ballot box.

What is happening now is that, how will Ada Colau resist the blackmail of the PSC and Valls to adopt measures as important as budgets? What role will ERC play from the opposition, being the most voted party? Will he continue to play with belligerence or seek great consensus in favor of the city? The only guarantee is that citizenship will not remain without saying anything.


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