The Barcelona en Comú candidacy leader and now-acting mayor of the Catalan capital, Ada Colau, has not given up the battle, despite the fact that she finished in third place in this Sunday's municipal elections for the city of Barcelona. In an appearance that necessarily had to wait until the end of the vote count in the face of the real possibility that her party would finally jump ahead of the Socialists (PSC) and achieve second position, which ultimately escaped them by just 141 votes, Colau recognized the victory of Xavier Trias, whom she called to offer her congratulations, as well as the second position of Jaume Collboni, who also received a congratulatory call. Now, true to her often-repeated campaign message, she has defended the need to articulate a progressive majority on the Barcelona City Council.
"Xavier Trias has come first in the race, but with only eleven councillors, and the progressive forces add up to twenty-four", Colau pointed out, and then added that "it is an obligation of the progressive forces" to articulate this majority, and that's why she argued that "she will ask ERC [Catalan Republican Left, who finished fourth] and the PSC to sit down and talk to see if this majority of 24 councillors can have an expression in government". In fact, Colau did not deviate very far from the words of Collboni, who minutes earlier had stated that "Barcelona has voted progressive" and inferred the general lines of the plan to bar Trias from the mayor's office, through a three-way pact that would ensure the absolute majority. In any case, the main obstacles to this option would be the decision on who would be the next mayor, and the positioning of ERC.
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In any case, as Colau asserted, accompanied by a euphoria that was excessive given the electoral defeat, that she is "proud to have been the first female mayor of Barcelona over the last eight years" and insisted that her party arrived into power "when no one in the institutions was expecting it". "We burst in, we came to change the agenda and priorities", she added, "and now that dream is no longer a dream, it is a dream that is being put into practice in the neighbourhoods of Barcelona thanks to this extraordinary political force, because you showed that it was possible to open many paths".
Also, Colau, who called the election count "frenetic", also noted that Barcelona en Comú finished "in third position, with nine councillors, only one less than we have now, in a context of noise and defamation campaigns funded by certain elites, who continue to treat us as intruders", and she once again defended that the Comuns have "changed the city, which is now greener, fairer, more feminist and more proudly diverse", affirming that the the intention of the party is "to continue defending these policies".
Ada Colau's full speech after learning the Barcelona municipal election results
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"Spring has come to stay and to carry on opening new paths", said Ada Colau with some lyricism, having already announced her intention to open a path for Jaume Collboni and Ernest Maragall to preserve a progressive government. Now it remains to be seen whether the leadership of this government will be handed over to Jaume Collboni and whether he will accept it. In any case, and as a declaration of intent, the appearance ended with those gathered in the La Paloma dance hall singing in unison the famous Canto a la libertad by Labordeta.