Not even in the best days of the Socialists, with mayor Maite Arqué at the helm, had a candidate in Catalonia's fourth largest city, Badalona, on the northern coastal side of Barcelona, achieved such an overwhelming majority as that which People's Party candidate Xavier Garcia Albiol has obtained this Sunday with 18 councillors. A record number for any candidate in all the municipalities of the metropolitan area of Barcelona, given the multiplication of new parties in recent times. The campaign slogan practiced by Xavier Garcia Albiol, 'Badalonism', in order to capture even the pro-independence vote, has worked.
And the other parties? An absolute failure of the rest of the political forces. Starting with the group that until now has governed the municipality, the Socialist Rubén Guijarro who obtained only 4 councillors; but also of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) with Àlex Montornès who won just 2; Aida Llauradó with En Comú Podem that obtained 2; and the current deputy of the CUP and ex-mayor of Barcelona, Dolors Sabater who with Guanyem attempted to lead the alternative as she did previously, but only won a single council seat. Sabater starred in one of the biggest political failures of the night, returning from the Catalan Parliament, to Badalona to lead the city again, but her recent disconnection with the city has taken its toll. The second failure was that of the Together for Catalonia (Junts) candidate, David Torrents, who failed to convince the pro-independence vote that gave him confidence in the penultimate elections.
From 'Cleaning Up Badalona' to 'Badalonism'
Precisely, Albiol went from the controversial motto 'Cleaning up Badalona' in 2015 to 'Badalonism' in 2023. Despite changing the wrapping paper, the substance within continues on the same lines that have made him an indisputable winner: a strong stand on law and order, recovering the Omega surveillance unit of the city police that he had installed when he was mayor and, now, seeking to go further and create an anti-squatter council as he himself promised in the campaign.
The final campaign event last Friday was quite a declaration of intent: with a huge poster featuring his face, also in front of the city hall. Neither his name in the 'Pandora Papers', which included having a company in Belize which was active until 2015, or having been the president of the Partido Popular in Catalonia during the referendum on October 1st, 2017, have weighed in the memory of Badalona voters. The conviction that he is the mayor of everyone has prevailed.