Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, in 2019. In Feb. 2023, Colau suspended all of the Spanish city’s ties with Israel.
(JNS) — Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau — who suspended all of the Spanish city’s ties with Israel, including a “twinning” relationship with Tel Aviv, last February — has lost her seat in the 2023 local Spanish elections.
Colau had cited “the repeated violations of human rights of the Palestinian population and non-compliance with United Nations resolutions” for the decision to boycott Israel. (José Luis Martínez-Almeida, the mayor of Madrid who offered his city as a replacement for a Tel Aviv “twinning,” won reelection.)
Colau lost to Xavier Trias, a former Conservative Barcelona mayor. “Thanks for the trust,” the latter wrote on social media in Catalan. “We will make a better Barcelona!”
Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, said he would dissolve parliament and call early elections — scheduled for July 23 — after conservatives and far-right candidates achieved “strong gains,” Politico reported. The elections were to be held by year’s end.
