It's a secret departure, which does not move many people in Barcelona. "Is he leaving?" But hadn't he already left? At the time of the morning coffee with milk, in a bar of the district Sant Gervasi, Lluis Marti, retired, does not seem to regret the end of the Catalan adventure of Manuel Valls. “He explained that he felt more French than Catalan, so it's very good that he is going away. He has nothing more to do here. "He was far too radical for a city like Barcelona. He has the right to be against independence, but he was not obliged to ally with anti-Catalan parties, adds Joaquim Ferrer, another client. And then if he leaves, it's probably because Macron offered him a more interesting job, right? "
Less than three years after a much publicized landing in the Pyrenees, the announcement of his imminent resignation from the municipal council, has gone relatively unnoticed. No doubt because she didn't surprise anyone. For Le Parisien, the former Prime Minister evokes "a unique experience in Spain", but says that he wants "to rebalance his life more between Paris and Barcelona".
After a disappointing fourth place in the municipal elections, Manuel Valls leaves by the back door.
"His arrival had aroused a certain enthusiasm among the elites of the city: he came crowned with his image of French Prime Minister, an experienced politician, with a fresh outlook on a city divided after the secession attempt of 2017, analyzes Iñaki. Ellakuria, columnist at El Mundo newspaper.
He would have made a good mayor, he knows Barcelona very well and his link with the city is very strong.
But he did not get the support he hoped for and then he was not easy going.
He can sometimes be haughty and proud.
"
"Its record is very poor"
In Barcelona too, his strong personality played tricks on him.
"We needed someone experienced like him, but he disappointed me because he was contemptuous of those who helped him", regrets Astrid Barrio.
Support from the start, this professor of political science is bitter: “He lost interest in Barcelona the day after its defeat in the elections.
He is an opportunist and his record is very poor.
"
However, this Catalan parenthesis will not have served for nothing since Manuel Valls found himself in the role of kingmaker at the end of the municipal poll in the spring of 2019.
To read also "Candidate for nothing" but on all fronts: what is Manuel Valls playing?
To everyone's surprise, it was he who allowed the radical left and its candidate Ada Colau to retain the town hall. "Without him, Barcelona would be in the hands of the separatists," explains Ignasi Guardans, a former MEP, now a columnist. What matters in politics is not the score you make, but the ability to influence you afterwards. And Manuel Valls did something unusual in Spain: he sacrificed his principles to support someone he considered the lesser evil. It is a trace that will remain. "This episode has so marked local political life that the expression" Hacer un Valls "
(Editor's note: making a Valls)
has entered everyday language.
“I am proud to have avoided an independentist mayor in Barcelona, claims Manuel Valls today.
But I am worried about the future of Catalonia.
The leader, born in Barcelona, very present in the public debate in France in recent months, will not turn his back on his hometown.
“He will continue to intervene in the Spanish public debate, through forums and media interventions, predicted Iñaki Ellakuria.
And then his wife is from Barcelona.
He will have a foot in every country.
"
The former mayor of Évry does not really hide it: his meeting with Susana Gallardo is ultimately the greatest success of his Spanish exile.