Daniel Sirera (Badalona, 55 years old) has a double challenge: absorbing the votes of Ciudadanos and winning over the voter who left him for Vox. He returns from Valencia to become PP mayor for Barcelona. He defends a different type of order: “A friend wanted to open a wine shop in Barceloneta and the usage plan prevented him from opening when he was 100 meters from another. It’s a mistake, the competition is good.” His message: neither Ada Colau nor Jaume Collboni nor independence.
Questions. As the PP candidate in Barcelona 2019, Josep Bou, was decided by the party leadership, i.e. Pablo Casado, are you running for Alberto Núñez Feijóo rather than Alejandro Fernández this time?
Answer. When my name came out in 2021, the management of Barcelona and Alejandro told me that they would be happy for me to run. When it failed, I went to Valencia to help Carlos Mazón become President of the Generalitat. In the end, it’s Feijóo, who has known me for years, who tells me: “I need you in Barcelona.” And I totally feel the support of the Catalan PP.
Q Are there no new people in the parties, especially in Junts and ERC?
R They are parties that have suffered a process of cannibalization and have heavily discredited politics in recent years. A lot of young people don’t see the benefit of games and I understand them: they think they only create problems. I come up with the idea of solving problems.
Q Have you spoken to Josep Bou? will you have him
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R Yes, I’ve known him for years. Anyone who wants to help me in the game is welcome. We have to thank Bou when no one wanted to run as he accepted as a businessman and defended our colours, with successes and failures.
Q Do you think PP can add voices from the classic right?
R If by classic right you mean people from Convergència i Unió, we are open to being elected. Many are orphans, moderate people who disagree with what they have done [el ex president Carles] Puigdemont or that he is the campaign manager [el ex alcalde Xavier] triassic Here is a reasonable PP, moderate and striving to improve the city. If they relate to other formations, we are open to anyone who wants to change.
Q Will they absorb ciudadanos and contain vox?
R We hope that the voters of Ciudadanos will trust the PP. There are people who have voted for Vox in the past, perhaps upset or dissatisfied with things the PP has done. Yes, I understand, and I ask you to trust us, nothing is built on radicalism.
Q Would you support a Triassic/Collboni government?
R I don’t know, it depends. Trias and Collboni have said they will resign unless they are mayors. Who I won’t support are those who intend to continue to follow the same policies that got Barcelona into the situation they are in.
Q Would Vox be a red line?
R Vox will not move into the Barcelona City Council.
Q Is your red line not to vote for Ada Colau?
R I like talking to everyone, what I do know is that the People’s Party vote won’t make Colau mayor. The vote for the PP serves to throw Colau out of the city council. Barcelona is losing investment, it’s not attracting talent, they’ve turned the city into a global showcase for people to throw objects at police and burn containers.
Q Shocked this speech in the week of the ISE, the most important audiovisual fair.
R There are two types of insecurity in Barcelona: civil and legal, the result of the policies of this municipality and the Generalitat.
Q Do you prefer the freedom of Isabel Díaz Ayuso?
R Not necessarily. Díaz Ayuso seems to me a very valid person, she is a great president. When you go to Madrid, the people who start businesses are excited. The perception that everything is better there is a reality. Here it takes many months to get a license for a business, there are Catalan chefs who are thinking about opening projects in Madrid.
Q Would the superilla stop if he were mayor?
R Some of the ones that have been made are fine, and the calming of traffic makes the city a little better, but they were made without analyzing the impact they have on the environment. You can’t think of an office throwing a dart at a card. The people who live in Consell de Cent may be happy, but I live on Calle Valencia and we will live twice as bad because we will eat the traffic. They build a first class city and a second class city, they break it up and mobility between neighborhoods gets harder by the day.
Q But there is a consensus that the future does not belong to the car in the city.
R The city council cannot impose its criteria on people, people must be free to choose how they move.
Q Who do you think is worse, Ada Colau or Jaume Collboni?
R I think they are sides of the same coin, they share responsibility, they ruled together.
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