Pro-independence potential mayor of Barcelona halts talks with incumbent Ada Colau

The potential mayor of Barcelona from the pro-independence Esquerra party, Ernest Maragall, announced on Wednesday that the negotiations with BComú for the formation of the government of Barcelona are stopped.

Maragall defined it as a "parenthesis" in the talks until the Barcelona En Comú party, lead by incumbent mayor Ada Colau, stop the "flirtation" with the Socialist party and Manuel Valls.

In the recent local elections at the end of May, Maragall’s ERC party won most votes, but not an overall majority to form a government in the Barcelona city council.

The Esquerra candidate for mayor has insisted that it is not a suspension of talks, as they have already "advanced a lot", but assures that the negotiations will not resume until Ada Colau’s party "clarifies the scenario."

The Republicans have offered that Ada Colau, whose party won as many seats as ERC but a smaller portion of the vote, have a "top-level role of representation" in the government.

It would be a position that currently does not exist, and that would be a level above the deputy mayor.

A coalition of the two parties seemed a foregone conclusion given their similar progressive leanings, but the offer by unionist candidate, Manuel Valls (independent candidate supported by center-right unionist Ciutadans), to back Colau "without conditions" to prevent Maragall becoming mayor has thrown the cat among the pigeons.

The ERC candidate has said that such an arrangement between Colau and Valls would be "unbelievable" and "grotesque," and Maragall insisted that him becoming mayor is the "logical conclusion" of the talks that his party held with Colau's this week.