In historical terms, thirty years probably constitutes too short a period to be viewed with sufficient perspective or to make an accurate appraisal. However, we can say the last thirty years in Barcelona have seen a transformation difficult to imagine at the end of the 70s. It has been an intense period and, without doubt, a fruitful one.

We have been through many stages and experiences but Barcelona has always been successful. Aims and objectives have been met, despite the vicissitudes or obstacles on the way.

Thirty years ago we were focussed on overcoming the legacy of Francoism. We had to modernise the city.

We developed the city outskirts on a grand scale and improved its public spaces. We left behind the hungry city [of the post-war years] and renovated Ciutat Vella [the old city]. We put an end to the periodic flooding of some areas of the city and put "ramblas" and boulevards in those areas worst hit by “desarrollismo” [structural change].

We had the courage to propose holding the Olympic Games and achieved the most spectacular urban transformation in Europe, a transformation that reflected the scale and needs of the city. We got back the sea and grew in terms of urban quality.

We created parks where once there were obsolete factories. We transformed an industrial economy into a service and knowledge economy.

We looked at every square, every street, while putting ourselves on the world map.

Behind every step, stone or service lay the work of hundreds, the determination of thousands and the enthusiasm of the whole city.

We all felt involved, we all played a part but someone who played a very special part was undoubtedly Mayor Pasqual Maragall.

I am not being untruthful, nor am I exaggerating, if I say that Pasqual Maragall is probably the key figure when it comes to explaining and understanding the city in the final twenty years of the 20th century, someone who wanted to reconquer the present and guarantee the future.

He was the driving force behind all the different energies that had to be mobilised. The initiatives, ideas and action Barcelona needed to generate had, in Pasqual Maragall, the best stimulus, the ideal person to spur us on and bring everything together.

Pasqual Maragall showed us we had to take the initiative and that we were capable of doing it, and doing it well. That we could write our own history, a history writ large.

Because the history of a city, of this, our city, is writ large, with the i's dotted and the t's crossed, in the words and with the emphasis that all its citizens give it.

I like to remember one of his favourite phrases, perhaps the one that best explains his ideals: a city is its people.

That is the main lesson I have learnt from Pasqual Maragall.

Public life, democratic politics, the institutions we have created, only have a raison d'être if they are conceived and used for people, for each and every one of our citizens. And if we work, listen, discuss and take decisions at a local level. Close to people, with people and for people.

Therefore, I would also like to say, with Pasqual Maragall's permission and, I am sure, with his consent, that now is the time for people in Barcelona.

To say people means protecting and looking after them, it means services and amenities in every neighbourhood; it means better quality public spaces, social cohesion and equality, safety and justice. It also means prosperity, progress and welfare.

Barcelona is a great city and will continue growing because of the grandeur of its people, because we all believe in Barcelona.

That is what makes us different and makes us strong. It allows us to be confident about our possibilities and bring the best out of ourselves. For the city and the country [Catalonia] as a whole.

This was also a vision Pasqual Maragall was able to transmit to us and we should not forget that.

He also expressed that idea when he took office as president of the [Catalan] Generalitat. At the time he said: “We don’t have to break anything but we have to follow the path that leads to Europe and a new kind of patriotism, that of social rights, of dignity, effectively recognised where it counts.”

Mayor and president, two great responsibilities Pasqual Maragall took on that, in my view, had one common denominator: putting people, men and women, at the centre of our attention, making them our reference point.

City and people, country and people: tandems that are inseparable. As inseparable as the one formed by capital and country, Barcelona and Catalonia.

Because, to paraphrase the man we are honouring, we must be clear that Barcelona’s challenges are those of Catalonia, as well as those of Spain.

Barcelona has a capacity for initiative. He showed us that. We have a lot of experience in that respect. Often we have had to make a virtue out of necessity and we are clear that this capacity is a virtue.

However, we want to bring all our capacities together. We do not want to follow this path alone. We want to take others with us.

In this hall, the Saló de Cent, before the whole council and the citizens who are with us, before the mayors who have preceded me and the President of the Generalitat, and before those who showed us the way, I want to affirm that now it is the turn of Barcelona.

In that regard, I want to appeal to the Catalan and Spanish Governments to redouble their efforts for Barcelona. I can strongly assure them that is the best social, economic, cultural and political option.

The Catalan Government knows what the rights and duties of its capital are and what rights and duties it has there.

The Spanish Government is aware of the aspirations and needs of a city that gives weight, projection and dynamism to the Spanish State.

Everyone should value Barcelona’s role as a capital and a trademark around the world.

And we should take care of the tangible and symbolic elements that Barcelona represents.

In this challenge we share, Barcelona will be both loyal and demanding. We will collaborate and be proactive, responsible but audacious when the situation demands it. And, when necessary, we will raise our voice to make ourselves heard and express our ambition.

Barcelona has the conditions and determination required for it to be the motor of economic and social progress that Catalonia and Spain need. To lead, represent and form part of the country.

Our economic model, based on innovation, creativity and modernising services and industry, is the key to guaranteeing growth. The present conjuncture shows it is necessary to know which cards to play to guarantee the future, in a demanding situation and faced with global competition.

The step forward we are taking as regards our infrastructures and links will confirm us as a central hub in the world and European communications network, as one of the main logistics platforms on the continent. But that means completing all our projects, in all their magnitude, in time and form.

Our clear commitment for social quality, for cohesion, constitutes both an example and a major challenge of the welfare and equal opportunities the whole country needs.

In the same way the country needs our capacity to become a reference point for Catalan culture and the Catalan language. A culture and a language that Barcelona is committed to defending as a common heritage and a key factor in social integration.

Catalan culture and language give us our own identity in a European and Mediterranean context. A context in which Barcelona aims to be a model capital.

Barcelona, therefore, proclaims its capital status, as a demand but also in action.

And we do so as an affirmation, not out of nostalgia.

We do it out of a conviction based on our possibilities and our potential.

And we do so as a city and a metropolitan area.

Twenty years after the Metropolitan Corporation was dissolved, we are in the best possible condition to articulate an undeniable reality. We must do this in terms of “useful metropolitanism”, as the sum of the municipal identities that make up the metropolitan area.

Barcelona generates, offers and demands trust.

We are renewing Barcelona's ambition. From the city itself, which will not disappoint itself or anyone else, and with a determination to share that ambition.

We have the duty and face the challenge of being equal to the inheritance bequeathed to us.

The inheritance of Narcís Serra, Pasqual Maragall, Joan Clos and the teams they led.

The challenge is a big one but there could be no better example and the stimulus is as strong as the enthusiasm this city awakens in us and the dedication it demands of us.

Above all, we have to show we are capable of meeting the expectations and fulfilling the wishes of the men and women of Barcelona.

If we do that, we will have given the best service we can to the city and the people.

And we will be paying the best possible tribute to Pasqual Maragall and what he has taught us.

Something, I am sure, that will continued to guide us in the new personal and collective challenges we are ready to face and overcome.

We were with him, we are with him and we will be with him.

Mayor, president, colleague, friend:

Today the city is here to give you its thanks.

Thanks for having the merit and knowing how to recover the merits of a city that was grey and wanted to reveal all its splendour.

Thanks for having given Barcelona its pride back, for being from Barcelona.

Thanks for having taught us to work for the city and to appreciate it. Appreciate it as much as the people of Barcelona appreciate you.