With a past of neighborhood struggle that led him to preside over the Federació d’Associacions de Veïns i Veïnes de Barcelona (FAVB), Lluís Rabell has been the first signing of Jaume Collboni for the PSC list in the municipal elections.
He reaches the candidacy at 68 years old, one more than the retirement age. Did you expect this political train?
Honestly no. Collboni made the proposal to me no more than 15 days before making it public, I had little time to think about it. And the press conference for my presentation was proposed to me the day before.
“I had been retired for a year and a half. Collboni made me the proposal no more than 15 days before making it public, I had little time to think about it”
What was he up to now?
I had been retired for a year and a half and dedicated myself to writing on my blog and collaborating with the Federalistes d Esquerres association.
You entered institutional politics for the first time as the head of the Comuns list in Parliament.
It must be specified that this was not the list of the Commons, who were not on that adventure. In Catalonia, Yes, it is Pot, there were ICV, EUiA, Equo, Podemos. Barcelona en Comú was left out.
It was immediately seen that Colau distanced himself from that list.
He opted for a strong image in the town hall and through his presence in Congress, rejecting the storm zone that was the Parliament. We are in the middle of the storm.
How’s your relationship with the mayor?
We’ve known each other since I was president of the FABV, he was on the board for a brief period. I was one of those who urged her to run for mayor in 2015.
“Colau has fulfilled two functions in his mandates: first, to collect the discomfort of the neighbors against Trias, then to prevent Barcelona from being in the hands of independentistas”
Eight years later, would he invite her to introduce himself again?
Colau has fulfilled two functions in his two terms. In the first, he collected the discomfort of the neighborhood movements against the mandate of Trias, the desire for change. In the second, his first merit was to prevent Barcelona from being in the hands of a pro-independence force at a critical moment and to become a platform for agitation.
Because you supported Colau accepting the votes of Manuel Valls to be invested.
Indeed. Although that “accepting the votes of Valls” is a tributary formula of the environmental pressure of the independence movement. The only way to reject them was to cede the mayorship to Ernest Maragall. Valls voted for Colau as the lesser evil and went to the opposition. Not assuming the mayoralty when he could legitimately do so would have been, on Colau’s part, failing in his political duty and his democratic commitment. That is what I publicly defended against the vacillations.
And do you think there is no reason for a third term for Colau?
We are in a new phase, a deglobalization crisis that will affect Barcelona. A progressive force capable of uniting different forces is necessary, from the working people of neighborhoods like the one we are in, Trinitat Vella (where the interview takes place), to the middle classes of the center. A new social contract. Collboni has a capacity for dialogue that flees from a polarization that has had too much weight in recent years.
“Collboni has a capacity for dialogue that flees from a polarization that has had too much weight in these years”
Nou Barris voted for Colau in 2015 and transferred the weight of his support to Collboni in 2019. What changed?
In the middle came the pro-independence ‘procés’. In people from the humblest neighborhoods who had voted for Colau, perhaps the perception of a certain collusion with the ‘procés’ weighed heavily.
Would you agree with a PSC pact with Colau with Barcelona en Comú as the minority partner?
The PSC has always governed with progressive forces. It is not a party that has just been founded, it is a predictable party in the good sense of the word.
Do you see a stamp on Collboni’s list that says ‘vote for me, I will prevent Colau from being mayor’?
It’s ‘vote for me, don’t vote for Xavier Trias’. As president of the FAVB I met Trias: an exquisite personal treatment but a very conservative mayor. And now he is the mayor anointed by Puigdemont, even though he wants to hide it and presents himself with that bourgeois bonhomie of a grandfather who comes to dinner at home. To vote for Collboni is to stop a conservative mayor’s office of the most unstable and unpredictable political force in Catalonia (alluding to Junts).
“Trias is the mayor anointed by Puigdemont, even though he wants to hide it and presents himself with that bourgeois bonhomie of a grandfather who comes to the house for dinner”
But you know that we have spent weeks in which an agreement between Collboni and Trias seems possible and close.
It is the least imaginable alliance due to the content, history and dynamics of the facts. What happens is that we work with a mental framework that they want to impose on us, for example with Colau’s friendly lunch with Trias. A you or me who seeks to reissue the 2015 elections: one who comes to seek revenge and the people’s candidate against the wealthy classes. Both options are anchored in the past. It is clear that the option furthest from the PSC proposal is the one represented by a conservative force such as Trias. That despite the attempts to give the image of Lord of Barcelona, it is the candidacy of Junts per Catalunya. A party that went to protest against the Franco-Spanish summit in the city. Trias was in Murcia with friends so as not to appear in the photo, but he will not always be able to go to Murcia.
Do you understand the movement of Collboni leaving the city council to prepare his campaign?
I was surprised that so many people were surprised. A deputy mayor cannot campaign as such. A female mayor can campaign as mayor. But a deputy mayor, no. It was the most honest.
What will a neighborhood plan deputy mayor do, a position announced for you if the PSC governs?
The plan comes from the tripartite and that there is a tenure of mayor focused on the issue makes sense due to the centrality and transversality that the issue is intended to give. We want to double the budget, from 150 to 300 million per mandate. A key challenge is to combat the difficulties that many residents have in accessing aid and benefits, help them with procedures before those who feel helpless. Collboni’s proposal is to combine the neighborhood plan with participation, an area in which we also have problems: more effective and satisfactory tools must be found.
Where you live?
In the Eixample Esquerra.
If you were a resident of Trinitat Vella, wouldn’t you have the feeling that the city government has invested more in the center than in other neighborhoods in recent years?
The truth is that if. And it’s more than a feeling. I live in Consell de Cent: they are pacifying the street.
“I live in Consell de Cent: they are pacifying the street”
In other words, you are luckier than those on Calle de València.
Yes, you get a certain comparative grievance, talking to people. An extra effort has been made in the remodeling of Eixample from which the peripheral neighborhoods suffer. The agreement to remodel Besós is a priority for the city.
What do you think of the green axes?
They are not the only way to earn green. The important thing is to recover the interiors of the apple… I hope that the green axis that is being made works.
Do you go by car? Is it hard for you to get home?
I barely use it. It will be necessary to verify this thesis that 15% of the circulation will evaporate. Hopefully it works.
Is there insecurity in Barcelona?
Security is relatively good. Why is there a perception of insecurity? Perhaps it reflects concerns that have to do with economic and social uncertainty.
Is the city dirty?
People say it, but it is something that also corresponds to moments of discomfort and unease. There is incivility, and that has to do with something that must be done: that people fall in love with Barcelona again. We are in a moment of disagreement.
Are you looking forward to the possibility of attending the Copa América as deputy mayor?
I hadn’t thought about it, really. You will have your one.
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Where are your friends from when you started at PORE?
Oops, they have followed different paths. In fact, I started in the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League), which was founded in the house of Pasqual Maragall. From that Trotskyism came people as different as Jaume Roures and Fernández Teixidó.