26.01.2016 - 10:14
The Mayoress of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has announced the will to build a new Catalan political space based on the experiences that have worked both in the municipal and the Spanish elections. ‘We believe that the wager on a new political space beyond party politics is a wager on the future’, she affirmed in a press conference at the Pati Llimona of the Catalan capital.
The internal bodies of her municipal party, Barcelona En Comú, will be the driving force behind a constituting assembly which in the coming months will have to define a structure for this new political space, which will not be a coalition but rather a sum of signs. Colau made it clear that she was willing to play an active role in the project, although she insisted that she does not aspire to hold any positions beyond that of Mayoress of Barcelona.
According to Colau, the coalitions of Barcelona En Comú in the municipal elections and En Comú Podem in the Spanish show that a permanent Catalan political space has to be set up. ‘I am not talking about coalitions, but rather a space that goes far beyond the party logics’, she explained.
The new project will keep the DNA that was key to the electoral victory of Barcelona Comú. ‘It is a question of creating a new political space that allows networking, to which everyone can contribute whether or not they come from a political organisation, where the lead is given to the citizens and where the defence of social rights, the fight against corruption and the defence of sovereignty and the right to decide in the broadest sense of the concept are at the centre of the proposal’.
The leaders of Barcelona en Comú have not set a specific calendar, but they have explained that they will try to configure this new political space in the coming months. Barcelona en Comú is made up of groups such as ICV, EUiA, Guanyem and Procés Constituent, and Colau has recognised that she would like to see the CUP and the more Catalanist part of the PSC take part.
