It has taken the loss of the power she had as mayor of Barcelona for Ada Colau to show the qualities that she has never lost: haughtiness, arrogance and a tendency to blackmail. It is clear that she would never had reached the position under normal conditions - in 2015, Spain's so-called state sewers dispensed with Xavier Trias, and in 2019 Manuel Valls facilitated her repossession of the mayoral staff to prevent Ernest Maragall's succession - let alone stay there for eight years. The power held by the mayor of Barcelona is very great and her ability to buy loyalties and silences has been high. Especially, at a time when many of the local elites were disoriented and their main, and sometimes only, battle was against the independence movement. In the end, the "Upper Diagonal" interest group came to think that Colau was the lesser evil. The decline of Barcelona was the least important aspect.
But, in the way that things go, the time has come when Colau has turned against her own or, to be more exact, against some of her own, with a language and a manner that, 600 kilometres away, caused surprise and irritatation to more than one. Ada Colau, unmasked, has fired live rounds at Podemos for wanting to establish a profile of its own and crossed a delicate line that brings her close to blackmail: "Podemos has signed an agreement with Sumar. It has to comply with it. We are in politics for the people, not for the parties. If you do not comply, you will not have the economic return." You couldn't say it any more clearly: either they jump through the hoops or they can forget about the coalition led by Yolanda Díaz complying with the agreements signed, which established the distribution of funds they are entitled to as a political coalition, fundamentally, I understand, in relation to the Spanish Congress and Senate.
It is true that Sumar's relations with Podemos are not precisely the best and even the two ministers of the latter party in Pedro Sánchez's government, Irene Montero and Ione Belarra, failed to attend the solemn public presentation of the agreement that is meant to serve as a preamble to the new coalition government if the acting prime minister succeeds in his investiture vote. Podemos has already said that it has not taken part in the preparation of this agreement, and not a day goes without Sumar speculating that there will be no Podemos ministers in the next government. There is tension, yes; but Colau's words were like lighting a fuse and Iglesias did not hold back his reaction: "Sometimes there has to be an effort to hide one's unconscious message. It is evident that Ada Colau wanted to tell Podemos: either do what we say or you'll be left without a euro. Well, madam, you can put your authoritarianism whereever it fits because, as well, this is just not true. It is an unprecedented lack of respect for the grassroots and it will also have consequences." All of this with exclamations such as that it is "pathetic that Colau tries to exercise a power that she does not have."
I will not be the one to write the guide for how Sumar should solve its problems, but it is good that 600 kilometres away people are beginning to get to know Ada Colau better. Nor do I know if she will become a minister in Pedro Sánchez's government, something she has long wanted, although she denies it time and again. The refuge that she has sought over this, in claiming that many people ask her to fill such a role, but her intentions are not to go to Madrid, are a long way from the truth. She will stay in Barcelona if she has no other options and if, in the end, she is left out of the distribution of ministerial portfolios. Surely, Yolanda Díaz owes it to her, but it is also understandable that the Socialists are concerned about giving a helping hand to a rival whom they want to keep well away, at whatever price, from any possibility of a return to the mayoralty and thus preventing the consolidation of Jaume Collboni.