• Incident Resigns the mayor of Badalona after being arrested for drunk driving and assaulting the police

Three applicants take positions to command Badalona, ​​the city to which instability, antagonisms and grotesque return for the third consecutive spring to the fight for mayor. In addition to the claims of the popular Xavier García Albiol and the sovereignist Dolors Sabater to regain the command they already possessed, the attempt by the PSC leadership to retain the helm of the fourth city of Catalonia is added. The socialists ratified this Monday to try it through Rubén Guijarro , once the former mayor Álex Pastor had amortized himself for driving drunk and assaulting police officers in full confinement.

The three candidates are separated by profound differences. However, they agree to demand the captaincy by appealing to pacts supported by several parties, under the premise of unity and with the aim of facing together the crisis that the coronavirus has already unleashed in a city with large pockets of poverty in its peripheral neighborhoods. However, it seems unlikely that the coalitions with which they plan to reach leadership possess the unifying capacity they desire.

Pebble fantasizes about a government under his hand that brings together all the parties in a period of depression, which combines from the PP to the group of Sabater linked to the CUP. "The PSC is the only one that can seek this consensus," believes the deputy mayor. With no ambitions so far for the leadership and well connected with the executive of his training, the fame of skillful negotiator accompanies Guijarro: architect of an all-or-nothing strategy, led the party to regain a treasured Mayor's office when its acronym accused more weakness in Badalona, ​​first relying on the constitutionalists to overthrow Sabater in 2018 and, a year later, making the independentists give up in their favor to marginalize Albiol.

Unlike previous disputes, Pebble now leaves with much less leeway for cunning. The PSC had backed up the idea of ​​running until the 2023 elections thanks to an arithmetic that makes it impossible for a motion of censure to prosper, which would force the association of popular groups with secessionists. The prospect induced Socialists not to seek a long-term alliance with the investor partners to shield shock-free governance.

It certifies the error that the slip of Pastor in one night was enough to exhaust the guarantee on the control of the Consistory. With the party weakened to once again claim command after its leader threw it out, Guijarro has conceived a story to distinguish himself from Albiol and Sabater ("they are thinking more of revenge than of the solution," he complains), but it is not a plan. Realistic even if you want to justify the emergency encouraged by the virus, from which more than 1,800 Badalona have been infected. Not even the councilman was sure to maintain his candidacy in the session to elect mayor, which must be held at the latest on May 12.

"Probably the best solution is a governance agreement for all councilors," Albiol agrees with the PSC. However, he stresses that the understanding must be subordinated "to the will of the neighbors expressed in the polls only 10 months ago," which awarded the victory to the PP again. Albiol only sees the consensus against the recession as legitimate if he recovers the Mayor's office that he yielded in 2015. Initially, he will not offer portfolios to the socialists. He risks that, once again inhibiting himself waiting for them to stumble in their own quarrels, the opponents take the lead in isolating the PP at any third time.

"You can't play chairs," Sabater replies to PSC. The sovereignist promises that she will not succumb to the same swallow of last year, feeling deceived by the Socialists, whom she sees disabled by her management: "They must decide if they are part of the problem or the solution, if they bet on a progressive government with Dolors mayor, of which they will be part and where they would be welcome, or make Albiol mayor. They must decide between two very different models in the face of the crisis. "

Sabater's ambition collides with the suspicion of the PSC to support it again, as in 2015. If the negotiations are blocked, the mayor advances that he will not endorse the erection of an unsuspected mayor that the left and the independence movement agree to renew a pact against the PP. "You must choose between Dolors or Albiol", ditch.

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  • PSC
  • Badalona
  • PP
  • CUP
  • Catalonia
  • Xavier García Albiol
  • Coronavirus
  • Lockdown
  • Quarantine

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