Ada Colau decided this Sunday to dispel the doubts that had been raised about her continuity in the Barcelona City Council since she lost the municipal elections of May 2023. After eight years as mayor and one at the head of the municipal group Comuns in the opposition, Colau will leave the file of councilor and almost at the same time the position of coordinator in Catalunya en Comú.
The abandonment of the first political line by Colau forces the formation to open the melon of the replacement of a figure who has been everything in its political space. But at the same time, the party excludes that his departure represents a change in the strategy followed within the city hall of the Catalan capital. In fact, in Barcelona en Comú they consider as finished their attempts to enter the municipal government of the socialist Jaume Collboni and assure that they remain in the opposition to rearm for the elections of 2027.
In the TV3 interview in which he detailed the reasons for his withdrawal and in which he did not rule out returning in the next elections, Colau denounced a shift to the right by Collboni that prevents him from reaching a stable pact. He also regretted that the CPS had given priority to the agreement with the ERC, still waiting for the approval of republican militancy. “We will act as a constructive opposition and we will work to create a more exciting alternative for the next cycle,” he said.
At least in Barcelona, and after the setbacks in the European and Catalan elections, the Comuns defend that the best way to face the new stage is to try to lead the opposition, in competition with Junts, and to present themselves as the only left wing alternative in the event of a possible PSC-ERC government. With this approach, they face the Catalunya en Comú congress scheduled for November, which must renew the leadership of Colau, Jéssica Albiach and Candela López, as well as that of Barcelona en Comú, in July 2025.
Since Colau lost the elections and chose at the last minute to appoint Collboni as mayor, the party he leads has advocated joining the municipal government and forming a tripartite with the ERC. Initially, the socialist councilor maintained contacts with a wide range of parties, including the Juntas of Xavier Trias, but relations with the Comuns became distant when the latter understood that the PSC did not want to have a figure of Colau’s projection of the mayor nearby. Something that the CPS has always denied.
The most critical point was the negotiation of the 2024 municipal budgets, which the Comuns rejected in plenary and which Collboni ended up approving in May on a matter of confidence and with the sole support of the ERC. During this plenary session, a mayor was particularly harsh towards Colau. “I have never seen so much irresponsibility happen in such a short time. “His attitude has caused the blocking of three progressive budgets of three governments,” Collboni even said, accusing him of having also blocked those of the Generalitat and the Government.
For their part, the Comuns are responding today that Collboni has oriented his policy to the right during the first term, and that this will condition the remaining three years. “The first year is the one that marks the term in terms of budgets and projects, and it is clear that they want to dismantle part of Colau’s legacy,” say sources from Barcelona en Comú. Among other examples, they point out that Colau’s project to pedestrianize the streets of the Eixample has been suspended. Or that they are betting on the “increasing privatization of public spaces” with events such as the Formula 1 race on Paseo de Gracia or the Copa América, whose deployment they are ensuring far beyond what they signed when they were in the city hall.
As for whether Colau was really an obstacle to a left-wing tripartite, Collboni did not deviate this Monday from the speech of recent months. “The will of a progressive mayor is to articulate a progressive majority,” he reiterated, adding that he continues with his “outstretched hand” to the Comuns to reach “budgetary and governability agreements.” The mayor did not go any further, aware that, in any case, he will first have to wait for ERC, which he does not intend to vote internally for entry into his executive before the authorization of the congress scheduled for November 30.
Relief and possible return
The immediate consequence for the municipal group of the Comuns is that the leadership is assumed by Janet Sanz, former deputy mayor of Urban Planning of Colau and its current number 2. The coordination of the team falls to councilor Gemma Tarafa. Both, according to Colau herself, already assumed de facto these responsibilities.
The former mayor insisted that she was not leaving active politics, only institutional politics, and that she would continue to be linked to the party, working on its international projection and forging left-wing alliances beyond the Catalan capital, through the foundation of the party, Sentit Comú. True to his promise not to get involved in Catalan or Spanish politics, Colau assured that he wanted to continue his trips and conferences to spread the project he has led in the council.
The big unknown that he leaves hanging is his return for 2027, a door that he has left open in all his recent public interventions and that will surely condition the debate on succession within the party. Although he does not occupy any organic position in Barcelona en Comú (yes in Catalunya en Comú), Colau is considered the undisputed leader of the party and has held this position in recent years, with the counterpart that the party has not been able to do. A figure emerges that can now run as a candidate in the municipal elections.
In this scenario, transforming Colau’s farewell to the institution into a simple temporary parenthesis is a possibility that is on the table. The Code of Ethics of Barcelona en Comú establishes textually that the mandates are limited to “two consecutive terms, exceptionally extendable for an additional term provided that there is a process of discussion and citizen validation”. The approval of militancy for a third term was already received in 2022, and with his resignation from the minutes in 2024, it could be interpreted that a new term in 2027 would no longer be consecutive.
