Alamany buries the possibility of ERC entering Jaume Collboni's government.

BarcelonaThe end of one of the serials of the mandate in Barcelona City Council. The general secretary of ERC and leader of the Republicans in the council, Elisenda Alamany, unexpectedly closed the door on joining Jaume Collboni's government this Friday. Speaking to the Efe news agency, Alamany ruled out consulting the bases on this issue in the near future because, she said, this debate is no longer on the table. "We are not where we were a year ago," she argued.

In this way, Alamany confirms what the Republicans' spokesperson, Isaac Albert, already indicated this Monday when he said that the preliminary agreement reached with the Socialists a year ago in the Catalan capital did not meet the conditions for a new vote. "It's common sense; we are not where we were. We are halfway through the mandate. Therefore, there is nothing on the table pending resolution," argued the leader of the Republicans in Barcelona City Council.

The possibility of the Republicans entering the municipal government has loomed over City Hall almost since the day Ernest Maragall took office as the Republicans' leader. Despite the divisions this issue generated within the party, the rapport that Alamany and Collboni forged led to a preliminary agreement that the Republicans' grassroots in Barcelona were to ratify last June at a congress that was postponed after the mobilization of those opposed to the pact left the venue where it was to be held too small.

The final blow

Since then, both the PSC and ERC had left in standby The debate continued, awaiting the Republicans' resolutions at the various congresses at the national and federation levels of Barcelona. However, the passage of time had increased doubts about the advisability of joining Collboni's government, even among supporters of the pact, who saw how, with only two years of mandate left, the possibility of establishing a profile and influencing the actions of the municipal government was fading.

The final blow to any possibility of reaching an agreement with Collboni was the victory of the critics on Saturday in the ERC primaries in Barcelona. One of the critics' flagships was precisely to reopen that failed debate from a year ago. With his words, and considering the pact with the PSC to be over, Alamany is trying to stop any attempt to reopen that discussion with a dual objective: to avoid internal division, but also to avoid a result contrary to entering the government that could condition the Republicans' strategy in Barcelona in the next term.

With this scenario, Collboni is on track to complete his entire term alone, despite having the government with the fewest councillors in Barcelona's history, with only 10. A minority that, for now, has not allowed him to approve any budget through ordinary channels and with which he will have to face debates such as that of coexistence.