LIVING

Mayol has been in public administration since working at the Ajuntament’s Social Services division in 1981. She is married to the Generalitat’s Minister of the Interior, Joan Saura. This is her last term, and it will end in 2011.

Isn’t it time the city had a female mayor?

It is time. I would have liked to have been the one, but it won’t be me. I’m convinced that a feminist mayor would be good for the city. It’ll have to be someone else. My party espouses term limits and I’m serving my last term. It’s also time personally. I’ve dedicated many years to political service, and when these last four years are over I want to spend my time doing something else.

What are the pressing environmental problems facing the city, and how can we deal with them?

The most serious problems facing us have to do with climate change and the inefficient way in which we use energy, and with the high level of waste at the domestic level. I also think we have a serious problem with the excessive use of cars. Not so much between two points in the city, which only accounts for 23 percent of trips inside the city that are made in cars, but above all in our connection to the greater metropolitan area.

I think that when there’s good public transport, the people use it. People respond well when there’s public transport that fits their needs, but there’s a bad connection with public transport to the greater metropolitan area, which results in people using cars. This generates most of the traffic in Barcelona. It is the starting point for an accumulation of problems like atmospheric pollution, which is primarily connected to traffic and is higher than it should be, problems deriving from the noise, and from the consumption of energy resources. I don’t want to demonise the car, because it’s a useful tool, but it needs to be well used. We also need other administrations with the financial resources to invest in public transport, in things like metros. For us, this is fundamental.