2023-12-17 21:56:27
BarcelonaFor many weeks, it was taken for granted at the Barcelona City Council that Pedro Sánchez’s investiture would also unravel the puzzle of the municipal government, where Jaume Collboni governs in a clear minority – only 10 councilors out of 41 – since on June 18 he get the mayoralty with the votes in extremis of the communes and the PP. Now, when Sánchez has been president for a month and the PSC has been governing alone in the Catalan capital for six, no one expects that there will soon be agreements in the city council. Although he maintains open conversations with everyone, Collboni is no longer in a rush to find a partner.
Sources from the mayor’s team point out that the end of the year will not bring anything new in this regard, and Collboni himself recently took pressure off himself when, in an interview with Intermédia Comunicació, he set himself the goal of having the budgets approved “before of spring”. “He wants to have time to see what the stage looks like in the end”, point out socialist sources, who stress that, once Ernest Maragall’s farewell is confirmed this Friday, there will still be time to resolve the farewell of Xavier Trias – who has already said who will leave soon – and of Ada Colau, who everyone takes for granted that she will not continue, but who has not yet defined a future that could be in Brussels: there are European elections in May.
Collboni mainly has two options on the table: an agreement with Junts per Catalunya or a tripartite pact with Barcelona in Comú and Esquerra. The mayor has insisted in public that he prioritizes this second option, but within his party – and also in his own government – there are voices that prefer the agreement with Junts. In fact, for now the talks held by Collboni are progressing much faster with those of Xavier Trias than with Ada Colau and the republicans. To the extent that, as Junts spokesman Jordi Martí Galbís explained on Monday, in his case there is even talk of what areas of responsibility each party would have in a hypothetical coalition government. The same sources are, however, skeptical about the final success of these talks and believe that at the last minute Collboni will end up opting for a left-wing government. From Barcelona en Comú and Esquerra, on the other hand, they explain that in their case there has been practically no progress and that nothing has even been negotiated.
The relationship with the commons
The government with Junts or the tripartite with the commons and ERC are not the only options that Collboni has. There are voices that encourage the socialist mayor to continue to govern alone for a few more months, seeing that the government is doing without many inconveniences beyond the budgets and tax ordinances. The impossibility of the opposition articulating an alternative majority due to the cross veto between the commons and Junts fuels this option, since even in the case of wanting to avoid the budget extension, Collboni could approve the accounts subject to a question of confidence that would win
Socialist sources point to yet another possibility. A government pact only with ERC that did not include the commons. The republicans are in the midst of an internal reflection process in Barcelona after the coup of six months ago, but the option of leaving a mark on the government after one term by giving it stability from the outside may appeal to them, especially if more commoners are left out, forced to decide in each debate between supporting a progressive government or voting with the right-wing groups. In addition, the harmony that Collboni has with the future leader of ERC in the City Council, Elisenda Alamany, is much better than the one he had with Ernest Maragall. In the background of this option there is also the confluence of interests between PSC and ERC, which aspire to bite part of the electorate of the communes once Ada Colau leaves.
The relationship between the Socialists and their former government partners in recent mandates is not the best either. The debates in the commissions – where, as happened this Tuesday between Janet Sanz and Laia Bonet, there are often clashes between the councilors of the municipal government and those of the communes – are a good example of this.
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