Jaume Collboni celebrates his birthday this Monday 100 days as mayor of Barcelona. While waiting to add a partner who will give him breathing space to manage and support in key decisions, what Collboni has done is send signals of what he wants in these next four years.
And between these gestures, the reality that the city is experiencing and the agenda of the rest of the administrations, it is possible to define without difficulty what the three themes that will mark the mandate that is starting and will conclude in 2027: the projects related to public transportation, the front of civility and that of public housing.
In the field of public transport infrastructure, Barcelona faces four years of great intensity, which will begin in autumn, when the connection of the Plaza de Espanya and Gràcia de Ferrocarrils stations of the Generalitat of Catalonia (FGC), with the extension of the Llobregat-Anoia line, which will mean the creation of three new stops, Gràcia, Francesc Macià and Hospital Clínic, and the reform of two existing ones, Gràcia and Plaça Espanya. Works that will finish in 2030 if all goes well.
The tram along Diagonal
It will be very relevant to know what date Collboni decides to undertake the second phase of the tram connection along Diagonal. In June he assumed that if it depended on him there would be unification of Trambaix and Trambesòs: “How can this infrastructure not be connected?” But since in April he raised doubts about the possibility of the work being delayed to the next term, to avoid so much work on public roads after that registered in recent years, he will have to clear up the mystery.
If the planned process is not stopped, The tram would arrive in Francesc Macià in May 2026, thus completing the union and creating the Diagonal/Cinc d’Oros, Balmes and Casanova stops along the way.
Metro expansion
The PSC stuck out its chest in February for having managed to close the agreement on the Generalitat’s budgets to dedicate 6.5 million euros to the drafting of the projects to expand L1 to Sant Crist-Badalona, L3 to Esplugues Center and from the L4 to Sagrera-Meridiana. Collboni also defends that of the L2 to the Marina through Montjuïc. These are matters that must be dealt with in the joint Generalitat-Barcelona City Council Commission scheduled for autumn.
As for La Sagrera, the high speed train will begin to pass through the interior of the station at the end of 2024. The second track is planned for 2026.
civility
Civility already marked the electoral campaign through debates about cleanliness and safety in the city and to a lesser extent the management of tourism. And the tone that the Collboni government wants to give to the matter is becoming very clear. From the beginning, the mayor and his councilors have warned that the city will not tolerate disrespect for authority, which means implying that until now it was done.
The message is also sent that with the new mayor the talk of disobeying laws, of snubbing economic power or the King and of drawing a line that separates welcome interlocutors from those who are not is over. That is, a fight, without citing the enemy, against the Barcelona en Comú speech or the one attributed to it, however you want to read it. The key is to make an inflection point visible.
Last week was lavish in gestures in this direction: on Monday, the mayor was received by Felipe VI after 17 years without meetings of this type. On Tuesday he was applauded with smiles of relief at the Cercle d’Economia, where he appealed to dialogue as a norm. On Wednesday he condemned the attacks with paint on investors who participated in the real estate fair ‘The District’, while the one who was Councilor for Housing in the previous term under Ada Colau, Lucía Martín, was among those who protested against Quote. She, Barcelona en Comú points out, did not throw paint at any investor.
The ‘Endreça plan’
Although the Endreça’ plan does not include the previous argument, it is the flagship of the discourse of order, although this word has been relegated in favor of another that sounds better: civility. The plan was presented by the first deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, and the third deputy, Albert Batlle, on July 26, when Collboni had been in office for nine days.
A plan based on which higher sanctions against incivility were announced, which is actually something that Colau already announced. But the socialists, who were then her partners when she governed, say in a low voice: “Now the fines will be collected.” Bonet and Batlle also spoke, as the mayor did later, of adding agents to the Urban Guard patrols.
The plan foresees more cleaning of public spaces, a communication campaign in favor of civility – which includes English for tourists – and address a modification of the Coexistence ordinance. This week ERC asked for this reform (although the Republicans are betting more on modernization than on hardening) and received the support of the PSC government. In short, order returns, civility returns, time will tell if it is also a reality or just a discourse.
The house, the plots and the 30%
Everything indicates that Collboni will fight so that no one can tell him that he is not as mayor of housing as Colau. From the outset, he intends to maintain the pace of public works construction and improve it if he can. His offer of 27 plots of land to the Generalitat to build combines the two intentions. First, because he intends to emphasize that these plots could have already been put on the table before, and they did not do so. If the agreement goes through, Incasòl will build nearly 1,700 apartments and the mayor will be able to say that this is thanks to his drive.
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On the same front, the mayor has to take up the state regulation of rentals this mandate and make his promise to make more flexible the measure coined by Colau by which large developments and rehabilitations of more than 600 square meters must dedicate 30 to protected housing. % of its floors. A rule that stopped activity because the sector rejects it and has not yet given the expected result. Collboni advocates that this 30% does not take place in apartments on the same property and that it can be paid in money.
The change should reactivate the private construction pace, and if that translates into more apartments, and therefore more VPO, the socialist will be able to defend it with numbers in hand and combat possible criticism from those who believe that it is bowing to the private sector.