"I have the honor of being the happiest man in the world, because I have the best job in the world: being the mayor of the best city in the world." This is how Jaume Collboni began his conference at the Cercle d'Economía this Tuesday night, the first he has delivered before the members of this important academic and business lobby since taking office. In his speech, he made an effort to clearly mark a before and after in the relations of the city council with the different economic and social actors, to whom he proposed "a new commitment" that would allow jointly boosting the city and "recovering the pride of being from Barcelona."
"Barcelona needs to recover its self-esteem; it has everything to do well," he expressed, highlighting its "powerful civic and social fabric, well-structured and with capacity for initiative" and recalling figures like Antoni Vila Casas, who have decisively contributed to having a better city. "We lacked one thing: having a good mayor. I, humbly, hope to be one," Collboni affirmed before an audience that had long yearned for a change of attitude, with Xavier Trias listening in the front row.
"The city asks for dialogue and understanding," "we must generate trust and reduce tension to seek agreements with the entire city and its entities," "we will make institutional normality and relations with all associations the motto of our way of governing," Collboni affirmed in different parts of his speech, highlighting the audience he had this week with the King and "the frantic activity" of meetings with all kinds of sectors that fill his agenda these first hundred days. He also wanted to make it clear that "Barcelona will not be subject to any political conjuncture" and that his government will work with a long-term view, thinking about projects for the years 2030 and 2050.
Meeting of social agents on November 22
"Dialogue and the capacity for agreement is not a sign of weakness; on the contrary, it is a sign of strength and the ability to generate progress. We must leave behind confrontation and sterile polarization and engage in dialogue in defense of Barcelona's interests," he stressed just before making a first major announcement: the convening of a meeting between social agents on November 22, in which UGT, CCOO, Pimec, and Foment del Treball will participate. "We are restarting social dialogue in Barcelona ---he stated-- to channel the participation of social agents in all the challenges the city faces."
"Dialogue and the capacity for agreement is not a sign of weakness; on the contrary, it is a sign of strength and the ability to generate progress"In this regard, he committed to the business world that he will work "to to generate a framework of institutional trustand confidence in the legal framework" that allows, for example, the return of companies that left at the peak of theprocés. He also reiterated his goal of articulating in the city council plenary "a progressive majority" to be able to govern, although he expressed his willingness to "reach agreements and not close doors to anyone."
Access to housing, the city's "social drama"
The most urgent challenge with which the "traditional" collaboration between public and private initiative must be intensified is housing, which he considers "a real social drama" and the "main source of inequality" due to the lack of affordable flats, which expels the population. He has agreed to consider the entire municipality as a stressed area to be able to apply the regulations on rental price control, a measure that he believes "is not the solution, but it is palliative, as it is urgent to stop the escalation of prices". The partners of the Cercle, who are working on an opinion note focused on housing, have let him know that they do not agree with this type of regulations, but Collboni has responded that "if we do nothing, the price of flats will continue to rise." "Non-regulation has led us to a situation of skyrocketing prices," he stated.
"We must be able to mobilize much more public and private effort to increase the housing supply and manage to contain or lower prices," he considered, reaffirming that his government will make more flexible the regulations that oblige 30% of new developments to be allocated to subsidized housing, a measure approved in the previous mandate and which he believes "has not yielded the expected results," quite the opposite, "it has been counterproductive." Even so, he does not plan to eliminate the 30%, but rather to reach a consensus with the other municipal groups on a new proposal that contributes to facilitating access to housing, avoiding creating greater legal uncertainty for developers.
Collboni referred to the major events that will contribute to generating self-esteem and to "expressing the best of Barcelona to the world, while leaving an important legacy," such as the America's Cup, the World Capital of Architecture, or the new fairs that will come to Fira de Barcelona. In all these events, public-private collaboration is key, which now needs to be "renewed," but not for cyclical reasons, but "out of conviction" and respect for a long tradition that constitutes one of the "virtues of the city."
Collboni has also announced that the Urban Guard has increased its staff, reaching a total of 3,500 agents, a figure that represents "a historical maximum" and that will also be reinforced with the deployment of another 216 Mossos d'Esquadra. "Bringing order to public spaces and increasing security are basic policies," he said, proclaiming that the city council "is very serious about cracking down on uncivil behavior." He also boasted about the low unemployment rate in the city, 5.7% compared to Madrid's 7.9%, and about the results already being yielded by the Barcelona Green Deal plan, which he promoted when he was deputy mayor.
Barcelona, European chip capital
In this new stage, he emphasized, "Barcelona must say yes; or, in any case, say why not. We have to seize opportunities on the fly, as we have always done." It was at this point that he referred to the great opportunity he believes the Catalan capital now has on the table: "to make a change of scale and become one of the European chip capitals," in reference to Europe's need to produce chips and semiconductors locally so as not to have to depend on Asia. He recalled that the city already has facilities such as the Marenostrum supercomputer or the Alba synchrotron, as well as companies like Cisco and fairs like ISE and MWC. "We must go all out and not let a single opportunity pass us by," he reiterated, recalling the project that has already been presented to host a chip design cleanroom, taking advantage of the 12 billion euros from the Next Generation funds of the Perte Chip.
"Barcelona must say yes and seize opportunities on the fly"Collboni has also announced that the Barcelona City Councilwill increase in this term from 20 million to 60 million the investment in the Barcelona Accelera and Barcelona Deep Tech funds,that it created within the framework of the Barcelona Green Deal economic agenda to invest in private venture capital societies that invest in emerging technology companies. "A greater effort must be made to favor the capitalization ofstartups andscaleups of the city," he highlighted, recalling that this initial public investment of 20 million has leveraged a private investment of 100 million.
Answering questions from the members of the Cercle d'Economía, regarding the expansion of El Prat Airport, he considered that "the debate is poorly framed" and that first, there must be a social debate on what economic model for the future is desired for Barcelona and for the entire metropolitan region. "Let's not talk about the runways, let's first talk about what model we want. Do we want to be better connected to the world to attract better talent and higher quality tourists?" he asked, answering that if this is desired, it is necessary to have the maximum direct connections with cities in the United States and Asia to seek out this profile of visitors. "We must not throw in the towel, we must reframe the debate and win over public opinion," he concluded, offering his support to President Pere Aragonès "to be able to address this debate" for the country.
Expand the metropolitan scope and competencies
Collboni welcomed the recent statements by the Gremi d'Hoteles, which announced the beginning of a new stage that does not prioritize volume but rather the quality of visitors. "Finally," said the mayor, recalling that "Barcelona is a city with tourism, not a tourist city, since it has a diversified economy."
"Barcelona is a city with tourism, not a tourist city, since it has a diversified economy"Finally, he called for changes in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), in order to increase its framework of competencies and its territorial scope by 2030. In his opinion, most of the great challenges facing Barcelona are challenges that require a metropolitan response from the Barcelona of five million, and for this reason, it is necessary to expand the scope to the crown that goes from Vilanova i la Geltrú to Mataró, passing through Terrassa and Sabadell, and transfer competencies such as infrastructure and economic promotion to the metropolitan entity.
The mayor concluded his speech by confessing to be a "born optimist" and expressing his conviction that "the city will go like a rocket" if things are done well and all its energy is unleashed.
Businessmen, academics and executives such as Jaume Guardiola, Teresa Garcia-Milà, Salvador Alemany, Pau Relat, Lluis Salvadó, Javier Faus, Daniel Fernández, Núria Cabutí, Josep Martínez Vila, Ramon Pastor, Carlos Cuatrecasas, Miguel Trias, Joaquim Coello, Maite Barrera, Mateu Hernández, Miquel Roca, Jordi Moix or Oriol Alba, among many others, have come to listen to Collboni.