Junts candidate for Barcelona mayor Xavier Trias in Barcelona this week MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI
Former Barcelona mayor Xavier Trias (76 years old) has returned to fight the person who ousted him as mayor eight years ago, Ada Colau. He says he shows up because people ask him to, but so do his party junts. If you don’t win, you don’t stay. The interview takes place at an uptown restaurant that has become his office. “Every day more people come, they even take my favorite tables away from me,” he says.
Questions. How do you get back on track?
Answer. Well the truth is that a lot of work. It changed my life: from retirement to a busy day.
Q He urges PSC and ERC voters to oust Colau.
R I feel a surge of favor. Before they scolded me to introduce myself, now to tell me we have to win.
Q It will be in part of Barcelona, is it also going to Nou Barris for example?
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R I walk all over Barcelona, people have a wrong idea of what I’m doing. I direct the Mental Health Foundation of Nou Barris and Vidal I Barraquer based in Sant Andreu.
Q In the upper zone it has a dedicated audience.
R It doesn’t always go well for us, it hasn’t gone well in the last few.
Xavier Trias, near the restaurant in the upper area of Barcelona, that has become the office where this week he is preparing his candidacy for mayor MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI
Q Why doesn’t it show Junt’s initials?
R We try to be as transversal as possible so that as many people as possible can register. From day one I said that the candidacy would be called Triassic and that it would be very Triassic.
Q Are you the Junts lifeguard?
R No, I’m nobody’s lifeguard. I’m a Junts person excited in the sense that we’re getting stronger and more transversal every day. It makes no sense that we break a room into pieces instead of expanding it. My job is to work together, I don’t do it alone, I do it because [Jordi] Turull wants it [El ex presidente Carles] Puigdemont wants it, the people who command the party. Puigdemont was the first to tell me: “Trias, do what you want”.
Q He did not stand by Laura Borràs on the first day of the corruption trial.
R I’ve always supported Laura Borràs, what I don’t do is go by anyone’s manifestations. But she knows she has my full support and affection and I wish her the best of luck.
Q Jordi Pujol was present at his presentation. Does it match Trias in their actions?
R He asked me if he should come if it hurt me anyway. And I tell him that I want him by my side. He is a person I love very much. He is the person who authentically brought me into politics, he was like my political father. It seems absurd to me that he didn’t come, it’s as if you were trying to tell me that my wife isn’t coming. It would be illogical.
Xavier Trias welcomes Jordi Pujol at the end of the presentation of his candidacy in Barcelona in early February MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI
Q They reformed Paseo de Gràcia and Diagonal. He took cars and calmed down. Is there so much difference between that and the four roads of Superilla, [pacificación de calles del Eixample con menos coches y más verde]?
R No. The problem is that it is now being done wrong. We didn’t create the problems now. Mrs. Colau and her government are doing something about it. You must do things to please the neighbors.
Q Is your anti-pollution proposal the electric car?
R What we need to do is that the cars are electric and don’t pollute. Another thing is to consider what space should be occupied by cars and what space should be accessible to pedestrians. Making the life of the car miserable will cause them to accumulate in other places with pollution. I was born on Consell de Cent street and La Superilla is a success for those who live there. It was very good, the pissed off will be those of the Valencia street. If not studied well, the traffic it generates is a mess. The cars are. They say they will make the city so uncomfortable that people will not come.
Q Do you think this is what Colau is looking for?
R Now that I’m walking through Catalonia, the metropolitan area, Sabadell, Terrassa, people are saying that they won’t go to Barcelona anymore. It’s a city that’s become uncomfortable. And something more serious is happening: the people of Barcelona are losing the self-esteem of the city. This is a city of international renown, but Barcelona residents are angry, they think the city is a mess. Colau assures it’s not true, but the perception is disgusted.
Q If you are mayor, how will you be perceived in six months?
R There will be cleanliness and safety, and we will fight poverty by creating economic activities, not with subsidies. And one more thing: the changes that need to be made, we will make by consensus and not against anyone. Colau’s newest obsession is motorcycles when this town needs them; We can discuss whether electric, I think so, but they are necessary, this is a city of motorcycles. Another thing, the Sant Antoni Superilla, turned out well, but the parterres are sad. There is no maintenance, it stays. How can you do that superilla and fuck it up? I can’t understand it, and it’s the whole city that’s poorly maintained.
Q When the tram to Verdaguer is ready, seriously, if you’re mayor, wouldn’t you ride 1,500 meters with Francesc Macià?
R No. I think it’s nonsense and also an obsession of Colau because the citizens of his time voted against it.
Q And will you leave this route unconnected?
R I always say the same thing, who benefits? There is already a bus. This union is needed for the interests of the tram company, nothing else.
Q Would you reverse the requirement for developers to earn 30% of social housing construction?
R We will change it because it was a failure. We have achieved that it will not be built. We have to make a political pact so that an amount is invested in apartments owned by the rental management for 20 years, but that cannot be done in four years.
Q Whoever wins the elections has to vote… and whoever wins doesn’t always govern. Who would you prefer if you could choose between ERC and PSC?
R The only thing that is clear to me is who I will not govern with: Ms. Colau will not join my government.
Q Junts is the group that has supported the most initiatives.
R That’s a journalistic thing, but it’s not reality.
Q let’s go back If you can score with ERC or PSC, which do you choose?
R Who enumerates and is willing to support me. I get along well with ERC and I will not draw red lines with the Socialists. I’m comfortable talking about sociovergence.
Q Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences for Antoni Vives in connection with the work on the Glòries tunnel. He already has a conviction, but he defends it tooth and nail. Is Justice Wrong?
R There are people who are obsessed with Toni Vives. I hope you come out of this innocence. He has a conviction on a pact for hiring a bad person. It seems very serious to me that they want to put a person in jail for something like this.
Q If you were convicted again, how would that affect you?
R none. It would be very sad because he is a very close friend of mine and I love him very much and I honestly don’t think he deserves it. The people who tracked him for this are working at the head of the tunnel [el ex director general de Bimsa hasta que se jubiló, Ángel Sánchez], they also ask him about I don’t know what, they haven’t changed him, it’s strange. And they did well because he is an extraordinary person.
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