I think TV-3’s decision to lift all the afternoon programming this Saturday and dedicate it to monitoring the inauguration of the new mayor of Barcelona seems very appropriate. So did Betevé, naturally. But the Barcelona mayor’s office transcends its municipal district and TV3 has well understood that what happens in the capital of Catalonia is of interest to all of Catalonia.
In the afternoon broadcast, when the count ended and it was already known that the mayor was Jaume Collboni, one of the first ‘congratulations’ that TV3 dedicated to him was this brushstroke: «In 2015 he got the worst results in the PSC!». He couldn’t tell them if it was a stingy reminder, or an admiring impulse. Highlighting now, in his inauguration, his poor results in 2015, could also be understood as an affectionate acknowledgment that TV-3 dedicates to him for his great progress in these eight years until finally being sworn in. He left it up to you to decide if it was admiration or stinginess.
Even more interesting were the accents, the messages dedicated to the new mayor in the subsequent ‘Telenotícies’. They opened this newsletter with a sign that said: “Collboni mayor against prognosis.” When he was about to raise the command rod, this other: “Mayor thanks to a script twist.” And then a comment, warning or significant excitement “This is the second time that the person with the most votes has been prevented from being mayor of the city!”. Ooh! I did not hear this kind of ‘pain’ that emanated from this phrase (“They prevent the most voted list!”) on TV3 when Salvador Illa He was the most voted in 2021 and yet “they prevented him” from being president of the Generalitat.
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If you want we could go further back and remember Ines Arrimadas: he won the elections and he couldn’t either. In none of these previous cases did TV3 express the discomfort that now shines through. It seems, then, that his discomfort (the French call it ‘desolées’) is consistent with the text on their labels: “script twist” and “mayor against forecast”. But it would be illustrative if TV3 told us what that ‘script’ was that apparently they already had written, and that according to them has made ‘a twist’ and has gone awry.
I liked, yes, that at one point they connected with their correspondent in Madrid “To see where this pact has been cooked.” But I have missed another connection that would also have been very entertaining: with Waterloo.