Xavier Trias has been the surprise mayor of these municipal elections in Barcelona. With good polls and a more personal than party candidacy, the Junts candidate has been accompanied by an apparently positive dynamic punctuated by some major unforced errors: there are several times when the one who has seen a puddle, has gotten inside.
The last one has stepped on it this week at least twice, on account of how much money a Barcelonan needs to get ahead. In short, Trias believes that a city resident who earns 2,500 euros a month has trouble making ends meet. And 3,000, too.
‘Among all’
This is how he implied this Wednesday at the meeting ‘Barcelona Entre Todos’ from EL PERIÓDICOWhen asked about the new housing law that caps rents, the candidate alluded to the fact that “the middle and lower-middle class” of the city are “ever more impoverished & rdquor ;.
He specified it like this: “The man who charges 2,500 euros now finds that his mortgage has been raised from 300 to 600 eurospay 300 euros for gas instead of 150 and [el coste de] his diet has skyrocketed”. And he stressed, alluding to the mayoress, Ada Colau: “While you are in charge, some things are happening that I do not understand why you do not solve them”.
Not even with 3,000
This Thursday, Trias has raised 500 euros. In the Tribuna Barcelona forum of La Vanguardia, he stated: “A man who is charging 3,000 eurosall of a sudden you find that your mortgage has been raised or your gas has skyrocketed, and can’t make it to the end of the month”, has secured.
The figures cited by the former mayor drink from the municipal statistics that places the average Barcelona salary in 2021 at 2,694 gross euros per month (for 12 payments). However, the average is calculated with the total salaries and has a significant upward deviation with respect to the most common salary, which is therefore below the aforementioned.
The fact is that there is also a study by the AMB that specifies how much money is needed to make ends meet in Barcelona, dating from last March and which concludes that a person from Barcelona needs 1,552 euros to make ends meet. If the reality of the entire Metropolitan Area is taken into account, the necessary salary would be somewhat lower, at 1,447.49 euros. In short, half, or almost, of what Trias considers insufficient.
Late this Thursday, Trias has specifiedin statements to Ràdio 4, which he meant a family, not to a person, despite the fact that on both occasions, both when he spoke of a salary of 2,500 euros and 3,000, he referred to a single employee. But it was a bit late to put out the fire that he had generated.
Criticism from your rivals
Trias’s words have generated severe criticism from his rivals in the municipal elections. The mayoress, Ada Colau, has censored his statements in a message on Instagram in which he has stated that the former mayor “lives disconnected from the reality of the neighborhoods: the majority of the residents of Barcelona struggle to make it to the end of the month charging much less than 3,000 euros& rdquor ;. Colau added: “He has already made it clear that he is presenting himself as the candidate of the elites, who wants to lay out red carpets for large companies instead of redistributing wealth & rdquor ;.
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“Where does this man live and who does he talk to?”, asked the mayor of the PSC, Jaume Collboni, who added: “What worries us is that the people who receive the minimum wage make ends meet. If it worries you so much, ask a supermarket cashier how he does it.”
The ERC candidate, Ernest Maragall: “Trias addresses 10% of the population, and I 90%, who earn less than 3,000 euros. I understand that he is not interested in these people, that he has 10%. I am also addressing those who earn 3,000 euros, but also those who are struggling to survive, pensioners, older people who live alone, young people who cannot afford housing. Trias is not very interested in all this & rdquor ;.