Xavier Trias signs Alsina, Calvet and Tremosa for the Junts candidacy for Barcelona City Council

Xavier Trias during the electoral campaign in which he tried to revalidate the mayoralty, in 2015. Consuelo Bautista

Xavier Trias finalizes the preparation of his list to try to assault the mayor's office of Barcelona.

After months of insinuations and flirtations, the 76-year-old political veteran plans to make his candidacy official before Christmas, except for last-minute surprises, and has stepped on the accelerator to surround himself with a team of collaborators who are of the utmost confidence and give packaging to the project.

The former Minister of Foreign Action, Victòria Alsina, the former president of the Port of Barcelona, ​​Damià Calvet, and the deputy Ramon Tremosa set up Trias' commitment to try to recover the mayor's staff that in 2015 he had to hand over to Ada Colau.

The applicant also maintains contacts with Josep Maria Argimon, former Minister of Health, who has made himself available to him;

but instead he closes the door on names close to the party president, Laura Borràs.

Xavier Trias, mayor of Barcelona between 2011 and 2015, has been aware for months that Junts per Catalunya considers him the ideal candidate to win back the government of the Catalan capital.

That preferred condition has given him a wide sleeve to manage deadlines and conditions in the preparation of the electoral list.

There is half a year left for the municipal ones and Trias no longer rushes time.

He has designed a list where he reserves the top positions for Neus Munté and Jordi Martí, a gesture of recognition to the current Junts team in the Barcelona City Council, and incorporates names that have marked their own profile within the Junts per Catalunya structure, in addition to having with experience in government positions.

Victòria Alsina was until two months ago Minister of Foreign Action, Damià Calvet held the Ministry of Territory between 2018 and 2021,

The selection of Trias is part of the specifications that have been imposed to lead the Junts list in Barcelona.

The candidate warned the party leadership that he wants full freedom to choose his team and, after the elections, have a free hand to be able to negotiate the most convenient pacts, without accepting vetoes to alliances with other parties.

"Freedom, flexibility and autonomy", is underlined from the Trias environment, to emphasize the principles that guide his electoral program.

The group made up of Trias reveals a manifest preference for having the pragmatic sector of Junts, far from the most extreme theses that Laura Borràs proclaims from the direction of the formation.

In the consultation called to decide whether to break the government pact with Esquerra,

Victòria Alsina confronted Borràs by openly positioning herself to remain in the Generalitat, the same as Damià Calvet.

Tremosa recently declared that "a good candidate for the Generalitat" would be Jaume Giró, the former Minister of Economy who also stood up to Borràs.

Sources close to the Junts presidency highlight that Laura Borràs has not put any names on the table and that she will meet with Trias soon to clarify what strategy must be addressed for the municipal ones.

It is not a new contact, it is specified, because Borràs and Trias have been talking for months and have even shared a lunch.

"The president takes care of and worries about Barcelona", highlight the same sources.

The idea of ​​Trias running again in the municipal elections has been a constant coming and going.

Internally, in Junts there are voices that urge the presentation to be made as soon as possible.

"We cannot delay it any longer, if we take too long it will pass like chewing gum, which loses flavor," say sources from the Barcelona federation, where the candidacy is applauded as a blessing after the unexpected departure of Elsa Artadi last May when she was mayor, when He explained that the reasons were mental health.

This time, in addition to Jordi Martí, loyal to Trias for more than a decade, and Neus Munté, it is assumed that at the top of the list will be Joan Rodríguez, a politician from another generation, younger, who until the march of Elsa Artadi worked as a technician in the municipal group.

In 2019, Rodríguez was number nine on the list and, despite the fact that the municipal group only has five councillors, he has ended up joining the plenary after the withdrawals, for various reasons, of Joaquim Forn, Elsa Artadi, Albert Civit and the non-entry by Pilar Calvo.

Junts now has five councilors in the consistory, far from the ten that both Barcelona and Esquerra have in common.

In 2011, when Trias became mayor under the initials of Convergència i Unió, his list garnered 15 councillors.

You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber