Pisarello gains ground in the race to succeed Colau as mayor of Barcelona.

BarcelonaBarcelona en Comú's casting call for a successor to Ada Colau is underway, and one name is a clear contender: Gerardo Pisarello, the Comunes deputy in Congress. According to several sources consulted by ARA, the former first secretary of the Congress's board is one of the best-positioned candidates to challenge Jaume Collboni for the Barcelona mayoralty, where he was a councilor between 2015 and 2019. All this, while some sectors of the party's grassroots are already calling for a name to be chosen after the party's congress. ten years after his birth. In response to this newspaper's questions, official sources from Barcelona en Comú rule out jumping the gun on who should lead the candidacy and assure that the process to select the ticket to lead it will not open until the end of the year. The primaries are scheduled for January.

A doctor of law and professor of constitutional law, Pisarello was part of Ada Colau's core group when she landed at Barcelona City Hall and assumed the position of deputy mayor. Sources from the party emphasize his high regard among the membership and stress that his profile "fits" with the DNA of Barcelona en Comú. This also applies to the commitment for a left-wing front which includes the party's new proposal to seek new alliances with Esquerra and the CUP. Precisely, and in an article in the ARA this week, Pisarello defended, following in the footsteps of Gabriel Rufián's (ERC) proposal, an understanding between the left to confront the far right: "Building bridges of trust between the republican left would inspire hope in many people who no longer believe that any single party can stop the Trumps and Mileis of our time," he argued in the text. On other occasions, he has also advocated putting an end to the feud between Podemos and Sumar.

And Urtasun?

Pisarello, currently the spokesperson for the Comuns party alongside MP Aina Vidal, isn't the only name that has been floated around the polls as a mayoral candidate. Also mentioned is the Minister of Culture and spokesperson for Sumar, Ernest Urtasun, although sources close to him "totally" rule out a move to Barcelona. In his favor, Urtasun has the same rating he has in Catalonia—at the last CEO, where he was questioned, he was the highest-rated person, along with Oriol Junqueras—and this would allow Barcelona en Comú to reach a different electorate, more inclined to vote for Collboni. Urtasun comes from the ICV political family and has former councilor Jordi Martí, Secretary of State for Culture and former PSC member, on his team.

At his side is the current leader of Barcelona en Comú at Barcelona City Council, Janet Sanz, a councilor since 2011 (first for ICV, then for Barcelona en Comú). According to sources consulted, councilor Jess González, a former member of Parliament, could also gain prominence in the 2027 election. Gemma Tarafa, number two at City Hall and coordinator of the Commons, has also seen her responsibilities within the municipal group increased since Colau's departure. What doesn't seem on the table for now is the former mayor running again for Barcelona. Sources consulted suggest that Colau is currently closing the door and prefers to focus on her activism and president of the Common Sense Foundation.

The dilemma of the code of ethics

There are two key elements conditioning Barcelona en Comú's internal process to select its next mayoral candidate: the first and most important is the term limits in the party's new code of ethics, which is currently being drafted. At the last congress, the assembly ratified its commitment to the term limit mechanism to avoid "the erosion of collective trust" and the "consolidation of closed dynamics." But the final formula was left up in the air: an ethics committee was tasked with making a proposal, which must then be ratified by the plenary in the fall. Until now, two terms were allowed plus an "exceptional" one, with the endorsement of the rank and file. This is what was done with Ada Colau so she could run in 2023, but also with Sanz and Lucía Martín, who had previously been a member of Congress.

Not only Sanz could be affected by the limitation: Pisarello, for example, has held public office since 2015 (first as a councilor and in 2019, he made the leap to Congress); Urtasun was a member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2023 before becoming Minister of Culture. It remains to be seen how the person who establishes the Barcelona en Comú code of ethics will interact with what is already established by Catalunya en Comú—formally, they are two distinct parties. In the latter case, the code establishes a limit of two terms "in the same or different position" (or the equivalent of eight years, if there are early elections), with the possibility of serving a third with the endorsement of the National Council. Both parties count their terms from the existence of the Comuns. Cases involving ICV or Catalunya Sí que es Pot are excluded.

The second determining factor for the candidacy is the gender parity requirement: the list must be headed by a tandem with at least one woman. The new proposal also incorporates two rounds of primaries: the first, for the tandem of numbers 1 and 2 (who will choose the top five spots on the list) and the second, to choose the sixth to fifteenth spots, also respecting parity criteria. This formula prevents the winning tandem from having to draw up the entire candidacy.