The news of return of veteran Xavier Trias to the political arena is not a rabid novelty, since it was taken for granted since the summer, although the departure of Junts from the Government could have stirred the waters. But, the situation restored, His candidacy has been confirmed this Monday at the Christmas dinner of the local federation of his party and with the announcement the electoral board of Barcelona is shaken.
Trias is back, and it is not just any return because, if there are no very striking surprises at the last minute, his name is the only one with the ability to shake the pools. This is not simply a good candidate, but a candidate who has many chances to win and that real possibility changes the panorama that until now had been drawn. It is, after all, “the return of the mayor,” as I heard in street conversation. And the expression has an emotional charge that refers to the memory of a presentable and well-governed Barcelona, that has been irretrievably lost since Mrs. Colau governed.
This is the main asset of Xavier Trias: the memory of his previous administration. The last few years of government in Barcelona have been so chaotic and have left so many wounds in the city’s civil fabric that any memory of times before Collauism makes many Barcelonans salivate. Return to the dynamic and reliable city, capable of implementing large projects and generating resources, it is the wet dream of a huge number of citizens. Enough to win the elections? The variables are multiple and no one will easily reach pole position, but it is enough to be on the first starting line.
settle a grievance
Trias also accumulates other notable merits. From the outset, he arrives at the electoral contest clean of dust and straw, without stones in his backpack or corpses in the closet. This time Police sewers will no longer be effective inventing fictitious Swiss accounts, nor the Colau on duty taking advantage of lies to dirty their name. In fact, the memory that Colau won the elections against Trias thanks to the campaign of the sewers -the second term was achieved thanks to the illustrious and surrealist Manuel Valls…-, adds an intangible feeling, although very tangible in terms of voting : the conviction of many Barcelonans that the mayoralty was fraudulently seized from him, and therefore it is time to return it. Sort of a grievance settled. In addition, Trias was a gentleman when he lost, he did not try to be mayor with pacts against nature and he did not torpedo the new government. And this category in the style of Josep Pla, that of “Lord of Barcelona”, is recognized even among the opposition ranks.
Apart from the circumstances that accompany it, there is a question that is not minor either. Trias is Trias, beyond its party and its initials. This does not mean that it is disloyal to Junts, but it is a free verse that has achieved a transversal image that creates complicity with very diverse sectors of the city. There is no doubt that he will make his team and his policy, and it is likely that “the old converging airs” are notorious in the list of names that accompany it.
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This fact, which depending on the circumstances would play against him, will be favorable to him in these liquid times where everything seems disconcerting, and in a city that yearns for some intelligent order, after so much delirium. It must also be added that, being a lifelong convergent, Trias has a progressive mood on many citizen conflicts, so his ideology is a mix forged by his own gaze.
Finally, a relevant fact. Trias is pro-independence, but It does not seem likely that he will reach the mayor’s office to declare independence, but to properly manage the capital of Catalonia. That is to say, it will focus the program and the public debate on the prosaic municipal management and will leave the poetic epic for the national contest, where the great attacks with the State can certainly be raised. With everything added, he is a luxury candidate for a party that until two days ago did not count in the pools of winners. Excellent news for Junts. Terrible, for their opponents.