The deputy in Congress and former councilor of the Commons, , officially presented his candidacy this Saturday for the primary elections of to head the list for the municipal elections of 2027. Supported by the former mayor and the Minister of Culture, , and before prominent names of the founding core of the party and his first mandate in Barcelona, he stated that he aspires to “be the first mayor of Barcelona of migrant origin, proudly Catalan, Latin American and in love with Montserrat Roig, Maria Mercè Marsal and the young Yammine Lamal.”
In an internal climate of accumulation of discomfort that has emerged in the executive elections in recent weeks, and nerves due to the shakeup that it has caused in the party, Pisarello wanted to advance his presentation. It has become clear that he is the candidate of the founding core and he has not yet revealed which woman he will partner with on the 2027 list. The deputy has assured that if he is a candidate he will have Bob Pop — “by my side,” he said — and that he hopes he will participate in the electoral campaign “as he has always done.” The writer and critic is holding meetings with party activists who have been approached by names from the second row of the party.
On Friday, the Barcelona plenary session approved the regulation that provides that the numbers one and two on the list choose the third, fourth and fifth places. The rest of the list, from numbers six to 15, will be chosen by open primaries, a risky decision, admit voices from the party itself. The idea is to have the applications closed during the first quarter of next year.
In his speech, Pisarello was convinced that “Barcelona can be a beacon of hope in the middle of a dark night as a resistance and as a more just and livable city.” He has attacked the current mayor, but without fuss, but briefly: “He has not been up to the task, he has lacked ambition, he has been complacent with the powerful and incapable of articulating progressive majorities,” he said. Pisarello, who presented his candidacy at the Ca l’Isidret civic center in Sant Martí, has assured that he is addressing precarious people, those who cannot pay the rent, and has shown himself willing to work to “prevent being a resident of Barcelona from being a privilege.”
As the commons already did in their congress last July, they have once again cited the idea of , with alliances with unions, companies and other parties. But he has not responded to the question of whether he would be willing to give up the acronym Barcelona en comú.
Former mayor Colau has assured that Pisarello, with whom, in addition to having governed, they are “friends and family,” she said, “is a person that Barcelona needs.” “We need to recover the momentum of 2015,” he stated. And Minister Urtasun has expressed confidence in recovering the Barcelona of the two mandates of the commons in the government and “the spirit of putting people at the center.”
In recent months and weeks, Barcelona as a whole has experienced a climate of unrest due to a host of accumulated causes. Now it is not so much the coexistence between the two souls (the most activist and the one that comes from ICV) or the systematic selection of leadership by hand by the founding leadership, but also the concern about demobilization or the fact that Colau took two years to reveal whether he was leaving or staying, which many see as a waste of valuable time to prepare a new candidacy.
The ways of Pisarello, who launched the idea of candidacy on the same day that the leader of the party in the City Council, Janet Sanz, announced that she was leaving, have also bothered. This groundswell has been visible during the executive election process, where despite winning the official list, those close to Pisarello have had poor results. Sanz was not present this Saturday at the presentation of the primary candidacy. Yes, fifteen names that represent the founding nucleus and cadres of the first government in the City Council have done so: Jaume Asens, Gemma Tarafa, Eloi Badia, Jordi Molina, Josep Maria Montaner, Ancor Mesa, Marc Serra or Jordi Ayala.
