The new Colau-aligned councilwoman who always rides a bike and wants politicians to stop living "angry"

BarcelonaDiscreet, from the inner workings of the party and a staunch supporter of Colau, the new Comuns councilor is known within the organization, but until now has maintained a low public profile. Tania Rodillos (Manresa, 1978) relief This Wednesday, Janet Sanz, Ada Colau's former second-in-command, was present at Barcelona City Hall. She has long held an important role within Comuns and Barcelona en Comú, where she joined the executive committee in 2020. In fact, she is responsible for the party's organization and territory, a key area, and until now she had been an advisor at the Barcelona Provincial Council. When did she become politically active? In a conversation with ARA, she explains that she became an activist within the Podemos and Comuns movement right after the 15M movement, a time she acknowledges is "very different" from the present. She also reflects on how "the rise of the far right, the Donald Trump factor," and the latent social problems in the country have turned the political and social landscape upside down. And that has led to an undesirable situation she wants to reverse: "Many people tell me we can't always be angry. We worry so much about so many things that happen... But people are tired. We must reclaim joy as a political tool to reach people, who already have problems," she asserts. That's why she took office with a "good sense of humor," something hard to find in Spanish politics, which is experiencing extreme polarization.

Recently, she directed Jaume Asens' campaign for the European elections and was also part of Colau's inner circle in the 2023 campaign, which she remembers as "very long and intense." Just like former Iniciativa MP Joan Herrera, Corrons gets around Barcelona by bicycle, a way of getting around that she finds "very comfortable," as well as sustainable. She defines herself as "a very organic person with role models within the organization" who doesn't follow "major leaders" and essentially values the weight of the organization. However, when asked about her main role model, she points to Colau first and foremost, and also cites fellow party members such as Tarafa herself or the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, with an eye beyond the country's borders on New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani or Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Americans.

A graduate in Business Administration and Management from ESADE with a Master's degree in Citizenship and Human Rights from the University of Barcelona, she has worked for twenty years in the financial management of private companies and NGOs. Former head of finance for the Barcelona en Comú party, she has lived in the Catalan capital since 2013, although she left the Bages region during the week during her university studies. Her family's connection to Manresa, in addition to having spent her entire childhood and adolescence in Navarcles, makes her particularly aware of "Barcelonacentrism," a critique of the idea that everything revolves around Barcelona, very prevalent outside the metropolitan area. Although Comuns concentrates its vote in this area, it aims to put an end to the excessive Barcelona "centralism" that allows the capital to "take everything," a point that, as the party's last assembly noted, was already addressed. "Barcelona has 1.7 million inhabitants and the metropolitan area 4 million, but there are 8 million Catalans," he stated.