The day JxCAT and ERC went to a party and found their own funeral

It was the end of the game for Xavier Trias and the independence movement. Oriol Junqueras, Laura Borràs, Artur Mas, Joaquim Forn, attended the meeting because they were expecting a party. And they found a funeral, his. The independence movement was biting the dust, although Xavier Trias and Ernest Maragall had signed an agreement that gave them 16 councilors, but which, seen as seen, was a mistake: it gave the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo the necessary incentive to endorse an operation that gives him to Pedro Sánchez the trophy of the second city of Spain, but it gives the popular leader a dimension of a statesman. The operation was cooked at the last minute and was about to not go out, just because of the doubts of the popular. That is why the independence movement did not expect it.

Although Xavier Trias compared what happened yesterday at the plenary session of the Barcelona City Council in the Consell de Cent room, it has nothing to do with what happened in 2019. In 2019 it was a personal initiative of Manuel Valls, who chose to vote in favor of Ada Colau to stop the independence movement. Valls announced it days in advance. But now it's been so different. For the first time the PP participates, something that did not happen in 2019. And what unites them takes precedence: Spain, than what separates them, which is almost everything else. The agreement was so last minute that Daniel Sirera and his four councilors were not clear about the vote an hour before the plenary session. Genoa had to intervene. And in the end the new mayor, Jaume Collboni had 23 votes: including those of the PP and nine of those of Ada Colau. Constitutionalism in Catalonia was coming together for the first time and if they had not been so surprised, they themselves would have realized that ERC and JxCAT had been caught off guard.

The reaction of the independence movement to the unexpected setback was bitter. The case of Pere Aragonès was surprising. It is a tradition that the president of the Generalitat receives the new municipal plenary session at a reception. His speech has always been formal. But it was not the case. ERC and JxCAT were bleeding from the wound. “Mayor, you have been chosen by parties with contradictory programs and ideas,” Pere Aragonès warned Collboni with a grave gesture.

And the Catalan president added that “the shadow of an agreement made from Madrid by the two major Spanish parties is projected. And we want Catalonia to decide from Catalonia and Barcelona from Barcelona.” In this way, he emphasized the accusations that both Ernest Maragall (ERC) and Xavier Trias had already launched. The latter denounced “this is not a coincidence. This is the third time it has happened.”

Jaume Collboni is in charge of a very large council with only ten councillors. And after today's speeches there is a great resentment that we will see how long it lasts. A part of the PSC, the one that wants to control the Barcelona Provincial Council —Núria Marín, mayoress of L'Hospitalet—, hopes to be able to reach an agreement with JxCAT and that within a few months those of Puigdemont will enter the municipal government. Sociovergencia, an old concept of Catalan politics. Trias has already announced that he is going home: “que us bombin a tots!”, which could be translated as “que os zurzan”. Without Trias, the municipal group would be led by Neus Munté. It would be possible to agree and have a placid government for four years.

Puigdemont unchained

A hundred pro-independence supporters booed Collboni when he went from the Town Hall to the Palau de la Generalitat. But nothing comparable to the reaction of Carles Puigdemont on Twitter. The Junts leader denounced that “the patriotic front exists, but it is Spanish: PSC, Comuns and PP. In the conversation between the Spanish right and left, Catalonia will always be a secondary actor” and he added “That it is accepted that the Barcelona mayor's office be caked from Madrid and that a puppet government is appointed and supervised by Madrid shows how far they are willing to go arrive their lackeys who today have returned to do the same as four years ago”.

But it's not the same. What happened today was a last-minute agreement and a concatenation of circumstances. And Colau's bitter face was proof. Or Pedro Sánchez, who did not congratulate on networks the man who has given Spanish socialism the largest city that the PSOE has obtained in these municipalities. The pro-independence thesis of a “State operation” has more holes than a portion of Gruyère cheese.

The Commons cornered the PP when an hour before the plenary session they announced that they accepted all the conditions that the popular ones had imposed and that seemed unaffordable for Ada Colau's party. It was a very important change of opinion. The PP was running out of arguments to say no to Collboni.

Nothing sure

The seriousness with which Collboni assumed the mayoralty showed the fragility of the situation. While JxCAT and ERC were represented at the highest level in plenary session, Salvador Illa did not come to support his candidate. nothing was sure. Everything was caught with pins. And when the ambitions of the independence movement were frustrated, the plenary session turned into a tense scene, full of reproaches, accusations and outbursts.. Only Collboni maintained the institutional tone.

“I have not participated in any pact with any political formation,” said Colau in his speech in plenary session. And it is evident that the Commons did not want the return of a Trias who were going to dismantle a good part of their policies. In addition, the Comunes renounced entering the municipal government, something that was being requested on Thursday from Génova street.

Collboni's duties go through rebuilding trust within the municipal plenary session to be able to play at governing through variable geometries. It may be easier once Trias leaves and when Colau also leaves the council, something that some sources in the Commons take for granted and predict that it will happen shortly. Only in this way will “the new Barcelona and metropolitan ambition” that Collboni announced in his speech be possible. In addition, the PSC has always used the Catalan capital to project its political strength throughout Catalonia.. That is what can be expected most immediately.