Antonio Balmón (65 years old) has experienced personally, as a neighbor and as a politician, the expansion of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, a border of 36 municipalities with 3.5 million inhabitants, more than 40% of the population of Catalonia. From the command post of the AMB, he manages the entity providing services to citizens, even if he has to defend the imminent increase in the water bill: “When we ask for a tax effort, we have to see the result, what cannot be is not asking for it and letting the service deteriorate, like in Rodalies”, he says. “This is treating people childishly.”
Ask. He was mayor of Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona) for 21 years and almost two decades as the highest executive position in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB). Was a hobby better?
Answer. Never. Neither personally nor publicly. What is most stimulating and exciting is having your gaze fixed on the horizon.
Q. In Barcelona and the metropolitan area, security, housing and tourism are issues that come up when citizens reveal their perception of their problems. Was it always like this?
A. Guaranteeing the security of coexistence and personal growth of each person must always be part of the political project. Then, there are things that emerge depending on each moment. Now housing stands out. Being able to have affordable housing, whether renting or buying, is a demand of the broadest social classes and if we do not respond correctly, it leads to a problem.
Q. The Generalitat intends to offer 50,000 social rental apartments in 2030 and, in the medium term, it plans more than 200,000 housing units with an official protection reserve of between 40 and 50%. The metropolitan area will absorb some of these properties. Are there enough services to serve this new population?
A. These are issues that were already included in the AMB forecasts; we have been pursuing a housing policy for years. A territory defends itself in terms of public services if it has inhabitants, because if it does not, the public services move elsewhere. Education or health are well-sized areas, even if there can always be specific tensions. What is important to focus on is mobility.
Q. As?
A. In the metropolitan area of Barcelona, road mobility must be prioritized over rail mobility.
Q. Isn’t this a counter-narrative?
A. Rail mobility is improving, with the entire Rodalies network being updated, but its expansion is only a matter of years, if not decades. We cannot meet current demand by offering a solution in ten years. Rodalies will improve, I have no doubt.
Q. Between 2018 and 2024, trains recorded a loss of 42,000 passengers on weekdays.
A. Rodalies will get guarantees, but to mitigate the collapse of mobility, rapid solutions are needed and this is only possible by integrating more intercity buses. Because they do not require more infrastructure, engineering projects or an increase in resources which, in many cases, imply time margins that would cause part of the population that today needs these solutions to already be retired.
Q. Doesn’t increasing bus service increase emissions and traffic jams at the entrances to the big city?
A. You have to know how to weigh social sustainability and environmental sustainability, in that order. If we have to respond to a social demand, which also affects the economy of many people, we will not be able to put solutions in place for ten years.
Q. Does the debt carried by TMB slow down investment capacity?
A. TMB’s debt is around 350 million, but it is not a burden, it can be borne. What gets in the way are the bonuses. They encourage the use of public transport but make growth and innovation difficult. If part of the resources is allocated to bonuses, it is clear that this part cannot be dedicated to investment.
Q. At the level of mobility, it is also shocking that the integration that occurs with the train or bus does not exist with public bicycles, and that a Bicing user is forced to change bicycles and resort to another service if they have to travel within the metropolitan area.
A. Administrations are limited by our contractual relationships. At some point, these contracts will expire. During the next term, starting in 2027, there must be a single metropolitan bicycle service, managed by the metropolitan region.
Q. Compared to the perception of insecurity, is this an opportunity for the far right to gain electoral space?
A. Fear creates uncertainty, and it affects us all, but we must combat the hyped stories that contribute to misperceptions of safety. When you look at the data, we live in pretty safe spaces. In a community, we must be harsh towards those who do not fulfill their obligations, because they violate the rules of respect that we have. And I don’t care where they come from, what color their skin is, or what language they speak. I don’t like that a minority can distort the coexistence behavior of a large majority and this must be remedied.
Q. Does this mean this problem is not being addressed?
A. When those of us in public power are not helpful, we create space for the far right to thrive. I want to face a fight that is not about fighting against a certain political force, but about asking why a left-wing force does not attack the causes that, at a given moment, citizens feel attracted to these far-right forces.
Q. And do you know how to do it?
A. With demagoguery, we achieve nothing, and those of us who exercise public responsibilities must make it clear that we are not going to make it easier for individuals, minorities, who try to influence our daily lives. And I also defend that they are not obliged to share with us the rules of the game of our well-being policy.
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