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For the past twenty-four hours, Ernest Maragall's rival in the spotlight has been the Socialist (PSC) candidate Jaume Collboni. He showed it on Monday in the Barcelona municipal election debate on local channel Betevé. And this Tuesday, the Republican Left (ERC) candidate has again pushed that line, in response to the anti-squatter office proposed by the PSC candidate. "It simply competes with Ciudadanos", criticized the ERC leader at an event at El Farró. He also criticised the general drift of the Catalan Socialist party, which "is taking steps to the right and towards Madrid". Maragall was accompanied by the Catalan economy minister, Natàlia Mas.

In a campaign event at Plaça de Mañé i Flaquer, Ernest Maragall reaffirmed his message in the debate, in which he ruled out forming a government with the PSC. "I was right in yesterday's debate. The PSC is no longer what I thought it was, they have confirmed it themselves", said the mayor of ERC, who referred to the city office against squatters proposed by Collboni. The Republican categorised his opponent as in competition with the right-wing party Ciudadanos: "he wants to scrape some votes using Mrs Colau", replied Maragall. Faced with this proposal, he asserted first of all the need to "avoid home evictions" and then to "eliminate" squats that do not have a social character. He defended himself as the "progressive option": "Between this and changing into the option that puts most stress on law and order, there is a massive gap"

The state's budget cut

"We have gone from the [PP] minister Montoro to [PSOE] minister Montero to do exactly the same thing." The Catalan government's delegate in Madrid, number three on the ERC list for Barcelona, Esther Capella, denounced that the Spanish government wants to cut 5% of Barcelona's budget, about 186 million euros, to pay for its "daily promises ". In her speech, Capella criticized the expenditure distribution plan sent by the executive of Pedro Sánchez to Brussels, which envisages that municipal councils must have a budget surplus. "It looks like the Mago Pop", she affirmed, invoking the name of a popular magician in connection with the Spanish PM's promises. "They spend and we pay for the party", continued the Republican leader, who gave an example of what could be done with this money: 1,500 public homes every year. The Catalan economy minister, Natàlia Mas, also present at the event in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, referred to this cut: "We cannot allow it and we will not allow the state to go ahead with this proposal".

"Both Colau and Trias" want to do deals with Collboni

Hours earlier, in a sectoral event in the Poblenou district, Ernest Maragall maintained the line of confrontation with Jaume Collboni that began in the Betevé debate. And he also put this in the context of the otrher main mayoral contenders: "Ada Colau and Xavier Trias are competing for the same thing, to see who is in a better position to make a deal with Jaume Collboni". A message which the ERC president Oriol Junqueras reinforced, recalling that the mayor is no "guarantee of a progressive government" because four years ago "she made an agreement with the extreme right".