When the politician at the head of an institution works constantly to discredit it, the least one can feel is embarrassment. Rarely has this happened in Catalonia at the scale it is now occurring with the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau. Her latest inappropriate gesture, severing relations with Tel Aviv, after avoiding the necessary endorsement of the city council plenary for a decision as important and controversial as this, reflects a very particular way of understanding what it means to be the highest authority of a city like Barcelona, tolerant and open throughout its history. Able to be twinned with both Tel Aviv and Gaza, hence its greatness. With this authoritarian, partisan and sectarian gesture, it is very possible that she will not lose votes in the next municipal elections, because in certain sectors, she will probably even be applauded.
But being mayor is completely incompatible with being an activist and harming the city's image. On a previous occasion she also had to make amends over her opposition to the Mobile World Congress, the most important mobile phone industry gathering in the world and the flagship of Barcelona's trade fair centre, the Fira, and she did so. Now, the municipal parties must, sooner rather than later, correct the insanity embodied in the new action she has taken. It is not acceptable even if she is highly desperate given that the polls situate her far from the lead on May 28th. It is unacceptable to do just anything in response, no matter how much she is used to making gestures and having a certain media wind blowing in her favour, even in newspapers that stands for the opposite of what she represents. As Francisco de Quevedo put it: Poderoso caballero es don dinero - Mister Money is a powerful gentleman. An extensive report from the Financial Times, the bible of business journalism, published this Thursday, has a title which reads like an epitaph: 'How Barcelona lost its way'. The text reflects on the city's economic situation and even its morale, and emphasizes the fact that it is in a state of decline, partly due to mayor Colau's management.
Clearly, it is significant what the British business daily writes, because in an intercommunicated world like today's, decisions that are taken thousands of kilometres away are linked to the impact of a negative news story such as the breaking off of relations with Tel Aviv and by extension with the Israeli government. It is no secret that numerous multinationals have held talks with different municipal political parties in recent times and have frozen their pending investments while they await the important elections of May 28th. This is not talked about, but it is there. A minimum level of coherence must be asked of political leaders, because as the Jerusalem Post recalls very well this Thursday, Barcelona has run two publicity campaigns in the last year to attract Jewish and Israeli tourists interested in exploring the Catalan city's Jewish heritage: Shalom Barcelona, and Barcelona connects Israel.
The decision must be reversed urgently and by as large a majority as possible. ERC, as the largest party after the last municipal elections, must be in the bloc - it also includes the PSC and Junts - which has already announced that it will correct the mayor's decree in the full council meeting. At stake is an approach based on being an open city and also the avoidance of ceding ground to Madrid, which has already announced that it is willing to twin with Tel Aviv - the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, always on the lookout, is even planning to travel to Israel next week to attract investments. It is not surprising that the hoteliers association has let out a shout of exasperation after Colau's announcement and the difficulties they have endured over two very difficult years due to the coronavirus pandemic. But Colau, far removed from the real world, has long since been committed to herself rather than to Barcelona.