Following a tradition created by Pasqual Maragall when he was mayor of Barcelona and later continued by all his successors, Ada Colau will present her vision of the current political situation of the city on Tuesday at an event that is entitled "The mayor responds". And the truth is that Colau is not short of issues on which to respond at a time when her rating stands at 4.3 out of 10 in the municipal survey, the worst mark since she arrived at the mayoralty in 2015 and then returned to office in 2019 as the result of a pact, at that time surprising, with the now-returned-to-Paris Manuel Valls and his group of councillors. The Upper Diagonal business lobby, which criticized Colau in her first mandate over the visible deterioration of the city, rolled up its sleeves to prevent the mayoral post from going to the winner of the elections, Ernest Maragall, of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), and before having an pro-independence mayor, preferred to opt for the continuity that, curiously, it now criticizes. The history of the Barcelona elites is circular: they commit to a course, they err, they commit to a new direction, and they are mistaken again.
Colau has a great opportunity to respond, in her first major public appearance since the judge of court number 21 of Barcelona summonsed her as a person under investigation for crimes of fraud, misuse of public funds and influence-peddling. Nobody really knows what the outcome of this appearance will be and the mayor, like any citizen, has the presumption of innocence. Of course, this happens to be the same thing that she denied Xavier Trias in the municipal campaign of 2015, when news appeared that ended up being false about non-existent accounts in Switzerland that the ex-mayor denied from the start, but that Colau used for her own benefit.
But beyond how the court procedure ends, it is remarkable how she has breached the code of ethics of the Comuns under which she is required to resign. If it was excessive to resign for a matter like this, as she argues and on which, probably, she is right, the code should have been amended before, since there was enough time to do so and not just turn her back on it, with the example that that gives to the public in general from the city council of the capital of Catalonia. The protection that she has had from her party colleagues rallying around her violation of the code of ethics and avoidance of the obligation to resign will undermine the criticisms that they might make of other political parties for a long time. Without going any further, I don't know how Colau thinks she can retain any credibility from now on if the things to which she publicly commits herself are meaningless.
A clear and sincere response is required, as she is responsible in first person. Just as she has three matters that particularly concern Barcelonans, that is, law and order, keeping the city clean and accidents caused by electric scooters and bicycles. It is not necessary to go into chapter and verse over any of the three, only to register that none of the promises made on the improvement of law and order in Barcelona have been kept, as with the theme of street cleaning, where there are major areas of the city in which the grimy state of the streets is unacceptable. Regarding the topic of pedestrians being knocked down, the fact that 40% of such accidents produced are caused by bicycles and e-scooters should be reason enough for a study to turn this situation around. It is essential that the promise to pursue inappropriate behaviour by users of these vehicles becomes a reality soon and pedestrian safety is guaranteed.
Although there are still fifteen months until the elections, the battle of Barcelona is already present in the strategy of the parties that will move towards the proclamation of their candidates in the next few months. The first force to announce primary elections is Together for Catalonia (Junts), which wants its aspirant decided in February, with Elsa Artadi as the predictable candidate. ERC is not officially disclosing whether Ernest Maragall will stand again or not, although the councillor has said on several occasions that he would like to continue, while the Socialists (PSC) are likely to run down the calendar picking petals off the daisy over whether or not Salvador Illa will step up for another race, that of Plaça Sant Jaume.