Xavier Trias trusts everything to the crossed vetoes to be sworn in as mayor of Barcelona

Xavier Trias was the most voted candidate in Barcelona on 28-M. The head of the JxCAT list has achieved more councilors than anyone, 11. His strategy is to remain silent and wait for the cross vetoes of his rivals to do his dirty work so that he can be sworn in next Saturday at 5:00 p.m. as the new mayor of the Catalan capital.. If all goes well, he will cross the Plaza Sant Jaume surrounded by his followers and enter the Palau de la Generalitat, where the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, will entertain him with a reception, as is traditional in Catalonia.

The confluences against him have not worked in Ada Colau's attempt to dislodge him with a left-wing tripartite and three rotating mayoralties. After Colau's idea, Trias met with Ernest Maragall to guarantee the support of ERC and that the Republicans would not fall for the siren songs of the still acting mayor. Maragall is reluctant to remove a pro-independence mayor like Trias from the mayor's office, as Colau proposes.

Ada Colau also has her own misgivings. He does not want to make the socialist Jaume Collboni mayor with the votes of the four PP councillors, headed by Daniel Sirera. She was mayor with the support of Manuel Valls in 2019. Now, the support of the popular would only serve to be a government partner of a mayor of the PSC.

Something symmetrical, but in reverse, happens to the PP. Deliver the second city of Spain to a mayor of Pedro Sánchez, the same one who closed the campaign of the municipal ones in Barcelona. Sirera came to joke with a veto for Colau to hand over his four councilors to an operation in which the commons and the PSC blocked the way to a victorious Trias.

In fact, Colau is also reluctant to give his votes to Collboni. She considers that if she does, she has to be mayor for a while, something that Collboni resists.. The PSC wants the free votes of the commons just for giving them the satisfaction of derailing the right that Trias represents.

All these suspicions of all against all have only one beneficiary: Xavier Trias himself, who if he does not manage to be chosen by a majority, will be appointed mayor only for having been the most voted for, as established by law. That is why the JxCAT candidate is silent, aware that his silence brings him closer to the mayoralty.

Vox and its invalid votes

The Central Electoral Board (JEC) ruled this Wednesday on the invalid votes of Vox. He did not go into the substance of the matter and rejected the claim of those of Santiago Abascal. The JEC alleges that the formation did not protest at the tables, largely because it had fewer proxies and auditors than the rest of the formations. Thus, the PSC saves a councilor who could have lost. By not contesting the elections, the plenary session of the constitution will take place on Saturday, June 17, as planned. Bad for those who needed more time to reach an agreement.

Ironically, the electoral environment created by Pedro Sánchez, by calling general elections for July 23, blocked any possibility that Jaume Collboni could close a pact to become mayor. Without these elections, perhaps the PP would have been able to facilitate the investiture of the PSC candidate. But in the new political context, this situation has become impossible.. That is why these days most of the actors in the Catalan consistory seem blocked. Only Ada Colau tries to maneuver, but her proposals do not prosper either. And that is how the days go by. Until the moment arrives for the reception of the new mayor in the Generalitat.