Jaume Collboni, PSC candidate for mayor of Barcelona for the municipal elections on May 28, photographed in the Marina del Port neighborhood.Albert Garcia
Jaume Collboni (53 years old) is the socialist candidate for mayor of Barcelona and hopes his third attempt will be his last to win the mayoralty. He has ruled alongside Ada Colau for the last legislature and part of the previous one, but left the city government last January in order to differentiate his project and campaign with fewer ties. He says it was a success and that he will win the election because the people are demanding change. In fact, he refers to the Colau Commons as “ex-partners,” though formally the coalition still exists. “We’re campaigning,” he claims.
Questions. The PSC won the 2021 regional elections, something it hasn’t won in the Barcelona municipal elections since 2007. Can you do it now?
Answer. We will win and I will be the new mayor. We notice it in the actions, in the climate, in the surveys. The real and progressive change for Barcelona is that of PSC.
Q One of their mottos is “Order, Pride, Opportunity”. Isn’t the appeal for order directed too far to the right?
R The left must be concerned about safety and protecting those living in the most vulnerable neighborhoods. Our discourse relates more to an orderly city. In the first 100 days, I will propose a pact of civility and coexistence.
Q Do you see clutter in Barcelona?
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R If people have this feeling, the mayor has to empathize, solve it and not look the other way, even if in the pandemic there is less crime than before and we invest more in cleaning.
Q He has co-reigned with Ada Colau for six of the last eight years. Aren’t you partly responsible for the situation?
R We’ve removed the roof from the streets and removed a thousand pedicabs. And when I am mayor, I will ask President Aragonès for the additional 600 Mossos that he has promised to deploy in Barcelona. This is a security concern: the extreme right is amplifying and manipulating the problem, and part of the left is ignoring it out of ideological prejudice. It’s a mistake. There are left leaders in Madrid who are making a speech like mine and are not from the PSOE.
Q Do you fear that the far right will grow at the expense of the discourse on insecurity and disorder?
R The extreme right is benefiting from the insecurity in the neighborhoods. There is some risk that this will have an impact on the Barcelona elections.
Q He says that those who do not adhere to bourgeois norms must pay. Is it good little?
R We need to update the Courtesy and Fines Agreement and increase the amounts. Maintaining public spaces costs money. An orderly city must have impeccable sidewalks, well-painted streets, and working streetlights. That didn’t happen because there is a majority and minority logic in a coalition. It was not part of the PSC.
Q Colau says the car won’t back up in your public space.
R The PSC defends social justice and climate justice. We want to move forward so that Barcelona is a zero-emission city by 2030, without anyone seeing it as aggression. The upper middle class can afford to change cars, but the working class cannot. I propose help to those who have the yellow label.
Q Is it no longer a priority in this mandate to connect the tram between Francesc Macià and Verdaguer?
R I said that the neighborhoods are a priority. You must complete the work on the Eixample and let it breathe. I don’t know if the tram connection will be at the end or at the beginning of the other mandate.
Q He makes a change to all of Colau as if he hadn’t ruled with her.
R I am proud to have invalidated the thesis of the economic decline of my ex-partners. We have built 1.2 million square meters of economic roof in La Marina, the 22@ district or La Sagrera.
Q He speaks of the Commons as ex-partners, but they still rule together.
R Let’s be serious: we are only a few days away from the vote. We had differences. My project is the one on the left, which offers solutions, not excuses; that’s right, governs for everyone and does not feed the confrontation with districts.
Q His partners have accused him of infidelity because he left the government. Why didn’t he break the entire PSC?
R I left because I want to be mayor. I wanted to campaign and keep going was an unnecessary burden. The PSC is not breaking up left-wing coalitions like it did in 2017. The counterpart to the broken coalitions is: Colau, 1-Collboni, 0. Lessons, the just.
Q Would it be symbolic for Pedro Sánchez if socialism won Barcelona?
R It would be a confirmation of his policy. Definitely the Catalan ones. A victory for the PSC would mean that it would cement itself as the leading force on the left; that the pragmatic politics returns after 15-M and the Procés and gives an impetus to Salvador Illa and Sánchez to solve the conflict through dialogue, the compact and within the constitutional framework and to lay the foundations for the solution and to develop the process constructively.
Q According to all surveys, no one will be able to govern without support. Who would you agree with?
R The foundations of the agreement are economic growth and not decline, social justice and loyalty to the state and the European institutions.
Q Will the airport expansion be part of the next city government’s negotiations? There they collide completely with the community.
R The underlying debate is not that of a firm proposal to extend a route or not to go ahead with it. It’s all about deciding which model you want. Let them share how degrowth creates wealth. Barcelona needs to internationalize its economy. I’m afraid there is no role model, only slogans or headlines. If the President of the Generalitat does not do this, in my first 100 days in government I will set up a scientific study commission to examine the options for expansion. All but one of the municipalities in the region are in favor of it.
Q Is your advantage that you can agree on the right or on the left?
R We are a left party. What if I don’t win? To the opposition. Our councilors will vote for me.
Q Do you think you agree with Junts’ Xavier Trias?
R Trias hides his initials and ideological position because he knows it doesn’t add up. It is not a safe change: it would create political and legal uncertainty.
Q Are you specifically excluding Vox from any equation to get your inauguration?
R It is obvious: Vox is not ready to settle any of the cases I have flagged.
Q Colau got Manuel Valls’ votes and you could get Vox’s if they think the priority is Colau not governing.
R I don’t make political fiction and I don’t fuel the far right.
Q In 2019, the crossed vetoes between you and the ERC on behalf of the process prevented the formation of a tripartite local government. Would you integrate ERC into your government now?
R Program, program, program.
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