Collboni knocks on the door of Junts, pleases ERC and ignores BComú

That's how things are at Barcelona City Hall. Nobody here gives anything away, and even less so as the next election in May 2027 approaches. Collboni has made a virtue of necessity and embraced the practice of variable arithmetic once the official rejection of the bid for a left-wing tripartite coalition, which, in reality, none of the three potential partners ever believed in.

The lack of stable partners, beyond the insufficient support for a majority, of an ERC party in the process of recomposition, which doesn't bother the Socialists too much, will mean that from now on Collboni will be condemned to suffer a little more than expected in advancing those projects that cannot prosper with a simple mayoral decree and that require a majority of the plenary session for approval.

Collboni can strengthen his Endreça plan—in fact, he is expected to do so—and expand the scope of his management of cleaning and maintenance of public spaces. He can also, with the help of the Socialist governments of the Generalitat and the Spanish government, intensify police presence on the streets and take advantage of new judicial resources to reduce the perception of citizen insecurity. He can even, also in collusion with his sister governments and the European institutions, pave the way for housing policies to one day, still far off, be truly effective. But he will need votes from the opposition to push through at least two electoral and government commitments that will mark the line between success and failure: the modification of the civic ordinance and the relaxation of the rule requiring the reservation of 30% of any real estate development or major renovation.

Add to all this an agreement on tax ordinances for 2026, and you'll see how logical it is that all of Mayor Collboni's attention right now is on the Junts group, the only one that can guarantee him the 21-seat majority. In any case, the pro-independence party, which, having exhausted Xavier Trias's cannonball in the 2023 elections, has yet to open the debate for its 2027 candidate, is in no way willing to make life easy for the man who snatched the mayoralty from them just minutes before the start of the final investiture session—the same man who rejected a social-convergent pact, citing due obedience to a left-wing agreement that would end up in the trash.

The minority with which Collboni governs has led to both him and some of the most prominent members of his government accumulating reprimands. It's rare for a plenary session to go unsubstantiated. Next Friday's plenary session will provide another opportunity. Junts has presented an initiative to confirm "Collboni's inability to reach agreements" and denounce his "repeated failures." This was announced yesterday by the spokesperson for the main opposition group, Neus Munté, who explained that her purpose is to highlight "this government's inability to govern the city, its structural weakness with only 10 councilors out of 41, the constant practice of announcing projects that never materialize, and the repeated failures to comply with the vast majority of agreements promoted by the groups in plenary sessions, committees, or districts."

In the two years leading up to the next elections, Collboni will have to flex his tightrope walking skills to maintain the political centrality he hopes to definitively occupy in 2027. Economic sectors that had hoped that his arrival as mayor would bring about a radical shift in some of the policies implemented by his predecessor, Ada Colau, particularly in the areas of mobility and tourism taxation, are deeply disappointed by what they consider a continuation of the current municipal government's line. But the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) is not willing to cede ground on the left to the Comuns (En Comuns), whom they beat by just 341 votes two years ago.

Read also Colau denounces "vetoes" during MEPs' visit to Barcelona on housing The Vanguard

The uncertainty surrounding the former mayor's return in the 2027 elections—currently a fairly remote possibility—adds spice to the stormy relationship that the Socialists and Comuns have maintained in Barcelona City Council practically since the day after Collboni's investiture. Between now and the end of the term, the few agreements the two parties can reach, such as the executive project to definitively complete the tram connection across Diagonal, will happen for the simple reason that they are inevitable.