From 9 to 11 June, Vedran Horvat and Tomislav Tomašević attended the International Municipal Summit “Fearless Cities” in Barcelona. The summit was organized by the municipal progressive political platform Barcelona en Comú, which won the local elections in May 2015 and its leader Ada Colau became the mayor of Barcelona. The successful model of political organizing represented by Barcelona en Comú also happened in other Spanish cities, most notably in Madrid – the platform Ahora Madrid won the elections that same year and Manuela Carmen became the mayor. Ada Colau and Manuela Carmen opened the summit, and were joined by the leaders of other progressive cities around the world.
Tomislav Tomasevic gave a presentation entitled “Creating Non-State Institutions: Between the State and the Non-State in Croatia” at a panel discussion on June 10. The presentation tackled examples of creating hybrid forms of commons management by institutions are between state and non-state. He gave examples of physical space and water resources management in Zagreb and Pula.
Iva Marčetić and Teodor Celakoski from Right to the City also participated in the summit. The conference was closed by Ada Colau and the participants presenting successful municipal political platforms from around the world, to inspire similar new political projects in the future.