The twist offers a breath of fresh air to the party of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, before the legislative elections of July 23. Barcelona city council elected socialist Jaume Collboni as its leader on Saturday, June 17, following a surprise deal with two rival political parties.
Mr. Colllboni was ranked second in municipal and regional elections at the end of May, winning ten of the 41 seats on the city council of the great metropolis of Catalonia. But hours before the city council’s vote, the Barcelona en Comu (“Barcelona in common”) party of outgoing left-wing mayor Ada Colau announced that its nine members would back Mr. Colllboni. An initiative supported by the People’s Party (PP, conservative) which holds two seats, which gives Mr. Colllboni a narrow majority of 21 elected.
Although the Socialists and the PP were fierce political rivals, the conservative party was not keen on Xavier Trias of the independence party Junts per Catalunya (“together for Catalonia”) becoming mayor of Barcelona again. Mr. Trias, who led the metropolis between 2011 and 2015, was however the favorite, his party having come out on top in the elections of May 28 which had offered him eleven seats.
In a press release, Barcelona en Comu also explained that it wanted to “avoid a Junts government that would lay a red carpet for lobbies and sectors favorable to far-right policies”.
After his swearing in, Mr Collboni, 53, said he wanted “to be mayor of everyone”. He succeeds Ms Colau, a former housing rights activist elected to lead a citizens’ platform backed by the radical left-wing Podemos party, which has notably made even more streets pedestrian-friendly and limited the opening of new hotels. to try to curb the excesses of mass tourism.
The municipal configuration in Barcelona is however an exception, in a Spain where the conservative right and the far right have made strong progress in the last elections. On Saturday, the far-right Vox party installed itself at the head of ten major cities in Spain by joining forces with the People’s Party, an alliance that could be renewed at the national level. The successes of the PP and Vox in the May 28 ballot led Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call early legislative elections for July 23.
