The mayor of Barcelona announced last Thursday that she will run for the municipal elections for the third time and that she will therefore be eligible for a third term as head of the city. She maintains that the seven years that she has been in politics have entailed “personal costs” and she affirms that she needs one last period to “consolidate” her policies. She affirms that she receives insults for being a woman and of a foreign origin to the elites.
If she manages to be mayor again, she could add 12 years as such. Wouldn’t that be too much to perpetuate, in view of the fact that she advocates that the passage through politics be limited, temporary? Three terms do not mean perpetuating oneself, perpetuating oneself is what those who have been active for decades and know no other job than politics do. I have had many jobs in my life. I think it’s good to learn about other activities and spend some time in politics. As mayor, it gives you freedom to know that you are temporarily in office. That is the essential, not so much if it is eight or fifteen years. In addition, many exceptional things have happened that have delayed some city policies, and a third term was necessary to consolidate a change in the model.
“I have had many jobs in my life. I think it is good to learn about other activities and spend some time in politics”
Does Barcelona en Comú ask you to repeat because the project does not have the consistency to continue without you? The project has all the consistency, beyond my person. No project for a city like Barcelona is individual; it is always collective. The city project does not depend on me, although in politics the visible faces help to communicate the policies.
He got 211 votes in favor of running again and one abstention. Wouldn’t you like to have a bit of opposition in Barcelona en Comú? I think it is good that there is harmony between the people most involved in the organization. But that there is agreement on this does not mean that there is no variety of opinions on other aspects.
“I am the first female mayor, from a working family: seven years have passed, there are people who still treat me like an intruder”
He talks about a collective project but also mentioned the personal costs that politics entails. What has he paid in these seven years? These personal costs should not be hidden, something that has been done a lot in politics. I think you have to show the most human part. The costs are of a different type. One is time. I have two small children and with the first I got involved in all the school activities, now I can’t do it, this is a seven-day-a-week job. Another cost is that I have had a period with a lot of tensions, there has been a lot of polarization, the appearance of the extreme right. It is also true that I am the first female mayor, from a working family, who did not know anyone from the elite and with an activist career: seven years have passed, there are people who still treat me like an intruder. Macho comments are allowed with me, insults that had not been allowed with previous mayors, men. And nobody likes that. I have not victimized myself for it, but it has personal costs.
He has received complaints, personal complaints. Has it been an encouragement to perform again? We have suffered a judicial offensive and it is symptomatic who has undertaken it. We have never been denounced for corruption. And they have always been vulture funds, multinationals that manage water, and always for issues related to our program, for defending the right to housing, for rejecting speculation. They are sectors that do not assume that what a democratic government does must be respected, they were not used to someone putting limits on them. There are elites that try to stop it in the courts and they do not succeed: the cases are filed one after another. I am very calm and yes, it is an encouragement to continue. Intimidation attempts will not hold me back.
“Now my main opposition is made up of some elites, such as Foment, economic lobbies that do not accept limits”
Related news
He announces that he will appear when a certain weakness is appreciated among his rivals. Doesn’t the Colau yes-Colau no polarization bother you? There is no Machiavellian approach behind the moment chosen for the ad. I announced a long time ago that a year before the elections I would answer the question of whether I would run again. As for my opponents, I think that the main opposition that I have now is made up of some elites, such as Foment, which does not accept that we are limiting the passage of cars in some parts of Barcelona, or the vulture funds that file complaints against us. The economic lobis that do not accept limits.
And the political opposition? Regarding the political opposition, the positive thing is that in this mandate we have achieved a stability pact with the leftist forces. A very broad pact, we added 18 councilors with the PSC within the government and we also govern with ERC as a stable partner with whom we have approved all the budgets and major city measures. Between the three of us we add 28 of the 41 councillors. All this is very good for Barcelona, a progressive city. Perhaps this stability has left less room for the rest of the opposition. There has also been a change of framework, in 2019 the national context weighed more heavily, now we are finally talking more about Barcelona. Junts per Catalunya is the force that has not passed the screen of the ‘procés’, which continues in the national axis. It is also the anti-Colau force, but I think that now the citizens penalize it, they want people to talk about the city, to make proposals.