Josep Bou: “If the PP is going to change me, don’t wait for the end of the term”

Josep Bou was just over three years old when the animals fell: “It was the first time I saw my father cry. When all the pigs died. He was a very poor and very simple man. They were killed by a disease in a few days, when they were already fat & rdquor ;. And the mother said enough: “We are going to Barcelona & rdquor ;. Before leaving for the city, they sold their remaining cow and the small house they lived in, in Santa Eugènia de Berga, near Vic: “They all spoke Catalan. I never heard anyone speaking Spanish there & rdquor ;.

And with just over three years, Bou, today president of the PP group in the Barcelona City Council, arrived in the Catalan capital. The family settled in the Verdum neighborhood, at number 42 of Góngora street: “It was a house with an oven underneath and two floors above. One was from my uncle and the other from my father. Everything was in Spanish. I didn’t understand anything when I arrived & rdquor ;. “My father was the son of Can Verdaguer, he was ‘fadristern’ (This is how the children who did not have the right to the family patrimony were called, which apart from small compensations remained in the hands of the ‘hereu’, according to the Catalan rural tradition) & rdquor ;, relates the councilor.

Paratrooper Brigade

The leader of the popular ranks lives in the wire since he arrived at the consistory, in the sense that he has never fit, nor has he tried to do so, in the party structure. He is not a member of the PP and he does not understand that there are people who have always dedicated themselves to politics and consider that they have acquired rights because of it. “The company is more autonomous. With the company you can do many things, from get rich to bankrupt. In politics, no. For many it is a safe job. Some do not know what the street is, looking for life for you. A phrase they told me in 1975 when I went to the Parachute Brigade & rdquor;.

Because Bou is an army enthusiast and he enlisted with a very clear objective: “I was a volunteer, I wanted to go to Africa when the Green March (through which Morocco took the Sahara from Spain). He didn’t want to waste time on duty or in the kitchen. I wanted to play the military. But the Sahara thing lasted two months and it was delivered. It tasted really bad to me. There was a nation without a state. The Army gritted its teeth and did what the King said. There was a colonel who refused to lower the flag. He sawed the mast and took it to the ship without lowering the flag & rdquor ;, he explains excitedly.

The councilman’s bad relationship with the party structure in Barcelona has contrasted with his harmony with the leadership of Pablo Casado, although this week, according to PP sources, he ordered him to dismiss his chief of staff, Luis Barroso, an ex-military Venezuelan who is attributed a Chavista past. Bou, who denies having received the order, is aware of the internal response it has raised. On Wednesday, while talking to this newspaper, he showed an unusual gesture, something sullen. Why? “I can’t answer this & rdquor ;.

The 22nd jump, to politics

Bou, who was the first instructor corporal, emphasizes that he would have gone to war: “As a young man I was in the OJE (Spanish Youth Organization that depended on the General Secretariat of the Movement during the Franco regime), I come from a Carlist family and for the country I would have done it & rdquor ;. As a paratrooper he did 21 jumps. And on the 22nd he did it in the town hall: “It was much more complicated. I came from above, and Being a paratrooper in politics is much more complicated. Advisers, district councilors: you meet people who think they have a wealth. They charge twice as much as my 1st & rdquor;. Did you notice rejection? “From day one & rdquor ;. But he denies that he backed the party: “Of my team, of the nine that I can elect, three district councilors and six advisers, only two are independent, the rest are from the party & rdquor ;.

“My position is available to Casado every 365 days a year. Now we don’t talk so much, but we send each other WhatsApps. He is a man who listens & rdquor ;, says Bou, who adds that he has not spoken with the leader of the municipal elections of 2023: “I have the will to repeat. Morale, strength, illusion. I want to repeat, but if they tell me no, I’m going home. What happens is that I think they would do a bad business. Because I know what people listen to me, my power as a brand. If I have to go, we’ll talk about the consequences. But I won’t be the one to leave. I have a commitment and until Married the trust I will stay & rdquor ;, proclaims.

As for names to replace it, it is clear: “It will be Madrid who will say who is the candidate. I am an example of it. Now, if the PP is going to change me, don’t wait for the end of the mandate & rdquor;, he claims, because he defends that a mayor needs time to build trust. That a few months is not enough. That it no longer makes sense to go campaigning in a market if you haven’t worked long before. “In the 2019 campaign, the game covered me, I received a lot of support, but then things changed. I am not talking about the party, but about party people. That they didn’t want me. 37,000 people voted for me. A representation that others do not have. Many were hired, they chose me & rdquor ;. It has the “certainty & rdquor; that it prevented the PP from staying outside the town hall.

He accuses Ada Colau of turning Barcelona into “the city of the kick in the door & rdquor ;, due to occupations, although he believes that Xavier Trias contributed to it: “From Can Vies the idea has been sown that you can do it all. It was terrible to give in to the squatters & rdquor ;. De Colau maintains that he does not like it badly: “I don’t like nobody good or bad. But there are people with whom I would have a beer and others with whom I would not. With her I would have a beer, perhaps, but I would not repeat. It would not be very comfortable. And I am comfortable with many people on the left. With Jordi Coronas, with Jordi Castellana (ERC councilors).

Related news

Maragall would have done better

Of Manuel Valls he says: “I have him as a friend. I don’t know if he has me as such. He’s a great guy & rdquor ;. If Valls had needed other votes to make Colau mayor instead of Ernest Maragall, he would have acted: “Before having separatism ruling Barcelona, ​​I would have given the vote & rdquor ;. And despite that, he affirms: “If ERC had governed in Barcelona it would have done it much better than Ada Colau. Because I listen to what they propose. But there was a problem: the ‘procés’. The ‘procés’ carves everything. I have a good relationship with Ernest, he’s the dean. But we can’t talk about politics & rdquor ;.