Ernest Maragall landed last Wednesday in Barcelona after spending five days traveling for personal reasons in the US. The still president of ERC in the city council closed the week in silence, without clarifying what their destiny will be in the short or medium termafter number two on his electoral list, Elisenda Alamanyassumed on November 10, hours before he boarded the plane that took him to North America, that he must hand over command of the Republican group in the consistory.
Alamany did not set a date, nor did he specify that Maragall must now leave the city council, but he was forceful. He recalled that the candidacy lost five of the 10 councilors in the municipal elections that he had in the previous mandate and questioned the strategy maintained between 2019 and 2023, when ERC opted for a constructive opposition, facilitated the approval of the four budgets of the mandate (in one case, forced by the party leadership) and closed several agreements with the government of Ada Colau without, apparently, this being profitable.
The negotiation, to begin
Meanwhile, Barcelona celebrated its fifth ‘birthday’ this Friday with a government of 10 councillors. Jaume Collboni was inaugurated on June 17 and for now he has paid for his lack of councilors with the defeat in the vote on the tax ordinances and the forced withdrawal of the budget project so that it would not, likewise, be overturned by the opposition.
It has saved the pact with the sector on the new terrace tax thanks to Junts per Barcelona and beyond the votes it is making progress in the management of the city, because the mayors have a notable margin of action. But he needs a partner and the negotiation has not started.
The tripartite
The situation is usually summarized in that the socialist must choose between Junts and Barcelona en Comú. But there is a derivative as important as the previous ones and it is ERC. Without the five Esquerra councilors, Collboni cannot put into practice the formula he says he prefers: a left-wing tripartite, which between the PSC, the Comuns and the Republicans would add 24 councilors – the absolute majority is in 21 councilors – and would give stability to the mandate. The alternative is the sum of 21 between socialists and Junts.
“But who do we have to talk to about ERC?” a senior socialist official said this Thursday. Because that is one of the enigmas that are on the table, and there are several. One, evident, is when Maragall will leave, and first of all if he will agree to do so soon.
Called to be mayor four years ago, when he achieved a historic victory that did not prevent, via Manuel Valls, Ada Colau from repeating as mayor in 2019, the ‘former councilor’ and former deputy in the Parliament is now in a delicate moment in a politician’s career, the end. If he had achieved a place in the Senate he would have a way out, but it was not to be.
Militancy, group or leadership
Beyond Maragall’s future is the debate about what is best for ERC. Alamany was emphatic a week ago: “We will have a different opposition than we did the last four years. We will not give the votes to anyone. We have learned the lesson. You have to be responsible with the city but the city has given us a very clear message, that it did not like a government of the PSC and the Comuns. “Our role is not to be the crutch of a left-wing government.”
Based on this statement, one would say that the tripartite is more crude than anything else. And then a key question arises:who will decide if ERC is in favor of entering a city government or not with socialists and Comuns? The Barcelona federation? The municipal group? Or, as has often happened since the world began, the leadership of the party?
Consultations to militancy
In any case, ERC started this weekend a consultation with his militancy in Barcelona so that he can position himself on how he believes the party should act in the three long years that remain in his mandate. The first session of this consultation took place on Saturday at Cotxeres de Santswhere the Barcelona assembly of ERC, an advisory body for militancy, met, and The debate will then move to the party’s ‘casals’ in the districts.
Republican sources say that there are not very different approaches in terms of entering the local government in the two candidates for the recent elections of the Barcelona federation, the councilor’s list Eva Baroconsidered the closest to the ERC management, and that of Patrícia Gomà. Baró won, but by a whisker: 365 to 342 votes.
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It is difficult not to take into account the opinion of the half that lost the vote when there are two almost equal blocks on one side and the other. The two candidates have defended the autonomy of the federation. Time will tell if this exists or not for such a relevant decision.
Potential partners
While the socialists maintain that they are waiting for events, sources from the Comuns assure that the ERC group is in favor of a government pact, but that they expect the leadership, Oriol Junqueras, to make the final decision. Despite all this, we have been assuming for months that for Collboni to add partners to his government, the debate on Pedro Sánchez’s investiture had to be settled, in one sense or another. And the socialist has been in office for four days now.