Ada Colau did not want to wait until the municipal elections were a year away and with her announcement to opt for a third term, she has ended up precipitating the pre-campaign in Barcelona. This Saturday, just when there are 365 days left before the people of Barcelona elect a mayor again, Ernest Maragall Y James Collboni They have joined the electoral race to stand up to him. While the ERC candidate aspires to win the elections again and do so “with enough margin” to be able to form a government this time, the first deputy mayor has criticized his partner for precipitating the electoral punga, thus distorting the council’s agenda, and he has promised to “rule to the end”. Meanwhile, the rights lack referents for the elections, with together Still no candidate PP without clarifying if Joseph Bou will repeat or not and eve pareraof C’sas the only confirmed option.
The electoral machines of the parties have already started in Barcelona for a long-distance race until May 28, 2023. The winner of the previous elections, Ernest Maragall, has been ratified this Saturday to be the one who tries again to lead for the first time to ERC to manage the City Council of the Catalan capital. A primaries without surprises in which the Republican militancy has had to choose between the 79-year-old veteran mayor or vote blank. “We are going to win unquestionably,” Maragall declared before his team. With a larger “margin” than the 4,833 votes with which he surpassed Colau in 2019, but that did not prevent the purple leader from revalidating the mayor’s office thanks to the support of the socialists and the mayors of Manuel Valls. The match chaired by Oriol Junqueras thus begins the countdown to try to ensure that the two balconies of the plaza Saint James be republicans.
The hasty start of the pre-campaign that Maragall has certified has not gone down well among the third most voted force. The PSC has celebrated this same Saturday an extraordinary council of mayors in which Collboni has taken the opportunity to stir up his partner in the Barcelona council. “I will not allow the people of Barcelona to lose an entire year. […] Barcelona now needs to be for solutions, these are not times for elections”, said the first deputy mayor. The tension between the government partners has risen one degree and the disagreements promise not to be an unusual trend until the elections.
Tension in the coalition
As an example, Collboni has reiterated that the socialist mayors will not support the new use plan proposed by Colau for the district of Eixample. Said reform implies a suspension of restaurant licenses in order to protect local businesses, among others. Something that the first deputy mayor considers that “will suffocate the city’s economy and generate more uncertainties.” While Collboni pronounced these words, Mayor Colau – having passed the process of her proclamation as a candidate weeks ago – inaugurated the new Gabriel García Márquez library in Sant Martí, the largest in the city.
The options identified as left-wing already have their candidates, while the right-wing ones only know that it will be eve parera who will represent C’s. Junts has held its municipal convention in Reus this Saturday without clarifying who will be its number 1 on the lists for Barcelona, once Elsa Artadi decided a few weeks ago to withdraw from institutional politics. The PP has not clarified whether Josep Bou will finally repeat or not as a candidate for mayor. And, from the formations without mayors, the CUP He also held a meeting this Saturday with members and supporters to try to get representation in the consistory again, although still without a defined candidate.