Shortly after the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, announced her readiness to run in the municipal elections of May 2023 as head of the list of Barcelona en Comú, thus opting for a third term, the opposition parties on the city council reacted with an almost-identical message, the possibility that Colau might be mayor again is "bad news" for a city that needs to dump her. With all the parties in pre-campaign, the various groups held up their own projects for the city with the more-of-the-same prospect that four more years of Ada Colau's government represents.
Elisenda Alamany, number two for ERC in Barcelona, pointed out that Colau's mayoralty “is an exhausted project, a lost mandate in which neither daily basic issues such as law and order, cleanliness and civic behaviour, nor substantive issues such as the tourism model have not been addressed." Even though Colau herself has gone as far as to say that, de facto, ERC is part of the left-wing government of the city council, Alamany considered that the mismanagement by the council coalition also has to do with “the strange make-up of this administration with two partners holding opposing views on what the city is today and where it should go”.
For his part, Junts spokesperson Jordi Martí Galbis said that "the confirmation of Ada Colau's candidacy for a third term is terrible news for Barcelona and Barcelonins". Martí Galbis added that Colau "has been re-claimed for a third term in breach of the Barcelona en Comú code of conduct" and noted that "these seven years of Colau have been very bad and the two terms will be a burden that will weight on the next municipal government" and he defended that the alternative "can only be based on Junts", as the other parties have all supported her and "even the Spanish right has said that it was considering voting for her again".
As for Ciudadanos, its leader, Luz Guilarte, pointed out that Colau "is always a problem for the city of Barcelona". In addition, she considered that after saying that she would not enter politics and that she would not run for a third term, "her lies are obvious". As for the PP, the president of its municipal group, Josep Bou, has stated that "Barcelona is ready to explode at any time" and that is why "in the next elections it is essential to remove Colau from the mayor's office". Finally, Eva Parera, from Valents, considered that for the people of Barcelona “it is not a joy for Colau to be standing again; if she hasn't found a place in the Pedro Sánchez government, the people of Barcelona shouldn't pay the price”.
For the PSC, Colau's governing partners, the first secretary in Barcelona, Ferran Pedret, criticized Colau's announcement to run as B Comú's candidate. In a tweet, Pedret points out that there is still a year to go till the elections. "Ada Colau should be mayor until then, but instead, she has decided to be a candidate from here on. I don't know if it's good for her, but it's not good for the city," he said.
Convinced of victory
In a week in which Catalangate espionage revelations once again cast doubts on the democratic legitimacy of Ada Colau's second investiture as mayor in 2019, the B Comú politician finally dispelled all doubts this Thursday and gave her personal 'yes' to heading the party's municipal list in the municipal elections of May 2023. Last Saturday, the party cleared the way by asking her to run for a third term, and she has now responded, saying that she is ready to run, "convinced of victory " and with "the will to consolidate the new model of Barcelona”, as well as assuring that, if she wins the elections, “it will be the third and last term”.