The former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, is preparing to leave the Barcelona City Hall this autumn. After nine years in the municipal plenary (eight of which as the first authority of the Catalan capital), the leader of the Comuns is considering withdrawing for the time being from institutional life, without this implying that she will completely renounce politics.
A spokesman for the Comuns consulted stressed that Colau would not leave the council “in September”. The only specificity of the calendar leaves the door open to what other sources of the formation are unofficially drawing from it: a resignation of Colau from her role as councilor throughout next autumn, without yet a precise date.
Colau’s withdrawal, reported by El Confidencial, was one of the pending tasks of the Comuns. The political future of the former mayor has been affected since last year’s municipal elections, in which she came third behind the current mayor, Jaume Collboni, and the candidate of the Junts, Xavier Trias. Colau blames the wear and tear of eight years in office (including a legal war against him) and the loss of support in the most popular neighborhoods that earned him a historic victory in 2015.
From 2015 to 2023, the Comuns went from 177,000 votes to 132,000 in the city. After facilitating Collboni’s investiture, Barcelona en Comú turned to the opposition with the ambition of one day entering the municipal government, but the party found that the PSC prefers to agree on a coalition with the ERC and leave them aside.
During the first year of Jaume Collboni’s mandate, Colau played a discreet role in the plenary and highlighted his international profile, with several trips and events in support of the ceasefire in Gaza and to rebuild bridges with the parties of the European left. For example, in the last fortnight he visited the party of France Insoumise, the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and an event in Rome with the Italian left forces.
This would be the new role that Colau would play once his departure from the municipal plenary session is confirmed. But this does not imply that the former mayor completely abandons political life, since none of the sources consulted excludes that Colau throws in the towel and resigns from being the Comuns candidate in the 2027 municipal elections.
Leaving the city council in the fall would allow Colau to avoid having to amend the party’s ethics code again (as he already did in 2023 to seek a third term) if he chose to run in the 2027 election. The Comuns document bars him from serving consecutive terms, but if Colau went three years without holding public office, he could run again.
The closest calendar gives more clues about when Colau will make a public statement about his future: on September 14, Barcelona en Comú, the party he founded ten years ago, will celebrate a birthday party. In the coming months, the Comuns will hold two congresses in Catalonia and the Catalan capital.
