The head of Barcelona's 'invisible government'

Three-way conversation, in one of the Moments Estel·lars that has gathered the most public at Casa Seat in Barcelona. Perhaps due to the little-known (even mysterious?) nature of the session's protagonists, the municipal managers. Or perhaps due to the efficiency with which those of their kind make everything work, even an event in which, exceptionally, they cease to be invisible to the eyes of the citizenry.

Laia Claverol, current manager of the Barcelona City Council. Constantí Serrallonga, who was so in turbulent times. And Albert Dalmau, manager until four days ago and now Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat. It was not an institutional act, but power was discussed. The kind that doesn't appear on the news, but that moves the city.

They agreed on a key idea: that the manager is that great responsible, executive and decisive person, who does not do politics, but makes politics work. That, when everything goes well, no one looks at them, but when everything shakes, everyone looks for them.

Claverol exemplified this with the municipal response to the recent great blackout. In a matter of minutes, she was already on Lleida Street, at the Municipal Coordination Center (CECOR), in the strategic command room, coordinating a rapid response so that no one was left unattended, such as those who had been stranded at stations like Sants. This had been marked as a priority by the mayor. And it is that, when crises emerge, managers are those who do not generate headlines, but they do generate efficiency.

Dalmau made it clear that this role is also a school of public leadership. He himself has made the leap to the other side of Sant Jaume square, to the Palau de la Generalitat, with his backpack loaded with first-line management. And Serrallonga, veteran and elegant, provided context and memory to the "most beautiful" task that he once warned Dalmau he would never experience again in politics. And today's minister confirms that, so far, this has been the case.

From the pandemic to a fallen palm tree in the middle of Diagonal, from the effects of the storm to the Pla Endreça, the figure of the manager emerges as that of the great institutional problem solver, from the technical structure, from the invisible government of a City Council like Barcelona's. In the engine room, yes. But always with the master key to the ship.