Collboni vindicates Barcelona's capital status in Madrid

Barcelona stands as a capital in Madrid. The mayor, Jaume Collboni, has guaranteed before figures from the political, business, and cultural spheres that "Barcelona has returned with strength, enthusiasm, projects, determination, and complicities," in an event at the Auditorium of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornesmiza.

In a conference titled Barcelona is capital, Collboni has reaffirmed the city's will to exercise "several capitalities," from the technological to the scientific, passing through the economic and cultural. In this sense, he recalled that several works precisely from Carmen Cervera's private collection will fill the old Cine Comedia in the Catalan capital, future home of the Carmen Thyssen Barcelona Museum.

And it is that Barcelona is experiencing a "cultural explosion," with projects such as that of the future museum and also the expansion of the MNAC and the announcement that the city will host the Goya Awards next year. In fact, the director of the Film Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite, has been one of the attendees of the event, which was also attended by figures such as the president of Aena, Maurici Lucena, and the former president of Congress, Meritxell Batet.

Collboni, who celebrated the agreement for the expansion of El Prat Airport, also extended an invitation to other cities: "Join forces" to multiply the capacity to take on challenges. The mayor, who boasted about the work done during his first half of his mandate ---which he will also address in the Moments Estel·lars cycle, organized by The New Barcelona Post--- , has assured that the focus is now on the "right to stay" in the city and access to housing.

"Today what we have to do is focus on something different: how to guarantee that citizens stay in our cities, how we guarantee the right to stay," highlighted the mayor. In this regard, he recalled his objective of eliminating tourist flats from the Catalan capital starting in November 2028.

This right to housing is one of the main challenges of the city, where there is a strong commitment to diversifying the economy through sectors such as science, with projects like the Ciutadella del Coneixement. As Collboni has advanced, this same week a relevant actor in the scientific ecosystem will take on a new dimension in the city: AstraZeneca will open its R&D hub in the renovated Edificio Estel, which will generate 2,000 jobs and attract new opportunities to the city.