24 hours changed everything. Actually, six, because in the play ‘in extremis’ that caused it to be Jaume Collboni and not Xavier Trias Whoever raised the bar of command of the Barcelona City Council was decisive in the turn of the wheel that the Comuns gave the same Saturday, with a decision that came just 59 minutes before of the investiture plenary.
Meetings, calls, pressure exchanges, proclamations that have remained on paper and emergency assemblies preceded a session to which the two applicants, the one from Junts and the one from the PSC, agreed holding their breath, without knowing which of the two would occupy the mayoralty and which would act as head of the opposition everything was left at the mercy of the four votes of the PP. A story with overtones of ‘thriller’ which shows that, in politics, reality is often stranger than fiction.
The ‘burial’ of the tripartite
Trias launched into the race to recover the mayoralty willing to collect the anti-Colau vote. He broke the triple tie in the polls at the polls, and the former mayor fell to third position and exhausted her options to chain a third term. Collboni accepted defeat at the polls, but did not throw in the towel and sought to govern, either with Trias or leading a left-wing tripartite. He contacted the winner and He proposed to share the command rod: two years for each. The post-convergent did not even think about it: “No way”.
The now mayor began to draw up the strategy to put pressure on ERC, taking the support of the Comuns for granted. He accused the Republicans of ‘burying’ a tripartite and prioritizing Trias. The call for general elections heated up the atmosphere and the Socialists began to be aware that the Republicans would elect Trias. oriol junqueras He openly bet on it, while the trickle of pacts from both Esquerra and Junts with the Socialists in the rest of Catalonia did not stop. The PSC began to have it clear: it was necessary to make use of the same manual as in 2019 allowed him to wrest the mayoralty from Maragall with the votes of Manuel Valls.
The negotiation between Trias and ERC was carried out with secrecy so that it would not be blown up. The PSC pressed the Comuns to convince Maragall, but Collboni began to test the PP in a public appearance, aware of the state of the negotiations against him. Barcelona En Comú proposed an alternative: divide the mayoralty to three. A year and a half for Collboni and the purples (not necessarily Colau) and 12 months for Maragall.
The plan came to nothing, despite the pressure exerted by Colau to address the initiative in a three-way meeting between the first swords, which never took place. So Trias and Maragall forged the distribution of councils and a common government plan in secret, thanks to the harmony and trust that united them when the former was in the Government and the latter in the Barcelona City Council. Two politicians from before doing politics in the days of Twitter.
Socialist pressure increased and they seriously considered reissuing the ‘Manuel Valls operation’, this time, in their favor. In the PP they remembered that their condition was that in the government there would be no trace of the Communs, much less Colau. Cross calls began in Madrid. Alberto Núñez Feijóo needed to minimize the impact of agreements with the extreme right of vox and the Communs kept rejecting a “triangulation” that implied indirectly accepting the votes of the PP.
The Municipal Policy Secretary, Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis, tightened the nuts on Yolanda Díaz and began to talk with Gerardo Pisarello, former mayor of the Catalan capital and a person of Colau’s highest confidence.
After Jordi Martí slammed the door on the ‘hidden votes’ of the PP, those of Colau made a media blackout. First, because they had to finish solving the lists to the generalsnot exempt from internal controversy with the goodbye to the politics of Jaume Asens, who had to be the head of the list but who ended up being ousted by Aina Vidal. But later, because the pressure cooker of the Socialists, who accused them of having the key to prevent Trias from governing with Maragall, increased by pascals.
On Friday Colau and Janet Sanz They met with Collboni, who reiterated his offer to govern in coalition, reminding them that the Socialists have allowed them to hold the mayoralty for two terms. The leaders left without saying what the direction of the vote would be, but the then mayoress summoned the leadership of the party at 10:00 am on Saturday and the coordinator at one in the afternoon. They agreed to leave the final decision in the hands of the municipal group.
Not everyone saw it clearly, but Colau ended up getting wet in favor of voting for Collboni without entering the government. At least for now. There was no call from Yolanda Díaz. The decision was made at 131 Calle Marina on the grounds that this would preserve more opportunities to forge in a future the left tripartite, an option that he considers more difficult if Trias takes the rod. Of course, the decision put the red carpet for the votes of Daniel Sirera.
Collboni’s call to Sirera
The PP found out that the Comuns would vote for the PSC candidate before Colau’s party announced it through a statement, with 59 minutes to go before the investiture plenary session. According to popular sources, Collboni called Sirera to reveal that Barcelona en Comú was giving in. In the conversation, the socialist took it for granted that the complex pirouette to seize the command rod had been completed.
However, Sirera inquired about an essential detail for the popular: where were Colau and his people going to sit? In the opposition or in the government? As he had anticipated on Thursday, the PSC leader responded that he was counting on incorporating Barcelona en Comú into his cabinet. The answer did not please the popular. “Jaume, this afternoon I will not vote for you”, warned him, exhaustive. According to the same sources, Collboni reacted by asking for time to undo the obstacle.
Sirera appeared in Sant Jaume square with two possible speeches for your intervention. Minutes before entering Saló de Cent, he was still glued to the phone. How to solve the dilemma? The unknown was tense and transcendental for the conservative, to the point that he wondered if he should give up taking the councilor’s minutes before opting for two critical and uncomfortable options for the PP one month before the general elections.
Sirera was not convinced until she read the literal statement from Barcelona en Comú, already inside the town hall and moments before the investiture. He hardly had another guarantee that there will be no coalition between the Socialists and Colau. The popular spoke with Collboni, but also with members of the Trias candidacy and with other PP officials. three minutes before enteringSirera met his councilors and agreed that he would withdraw his candidacy in favor of Collboni.
Outrage at the Saló de Cent
Related news
In the Saló de Cent, where all the guests were already seated, many close to Junts, they burn with indignation at the surprise. PSC personnel did not discover until then that not only was not all lost, but that the socialist mayor’s office was one step away from becoming official.
At 5:17 p.m. Jaume Collboni entered with two prepared speeches, like Sirera. One in case he became the new mayor and another as leader of the opposition. There were boos among the public, tension in the act, and a tremendous anger on the part of Trias. Ernest Maragall didn’t look so much upset as surprised. Elisenda Alamany, his number two, was saying no. Was Collboni in ‘shock’? At first, yes, but he suddenly missed signing the first decrees as mayor: those on the distribution of cartipás.