Politics has fostered a deep sense of malaise in a city that is one of the most visited in Europe. Street crime is rising and many businesses have left.<\/p>\n\n
Pau Guardans\u2019 grandfather gazes down from the wall, his portrait separating the shelves of a wood-panelled library inside Barcelona\u2019s Grand Hotel Central. The luxury establishment was opened in 2005 by \u00danico Hotels, a group founded by Guardans, which added a rooftop infinity pool to a building whose stone entrance still bears the ruts of horse-drawn carts. Francesc Camb\u00f3, a Catalan politician and Guardans\u2019 forebear, built it as his home in 1922.
\n\n
So selling the hotel was a wrench. When \u00danico cut it loose in 2021, it was not only offloading a \u20ac93mn asset but severing a family bond. Guardans decided, however, it was time to move on. In Barcelona, one of Europe\u2019s most visited destinations, politics had fostered a deep sense of malaise.<\/p>\n\n
The city\u2019s present mayor, Ada Colau, a leftwing former activist running for re-election this year, had by then been in office for six years. Her vision was of a greener and more inclusive city, which meant reining in the \u201cchaos\u201d of mass tourism and property speculation. But to business people she had cemented a reputation as an enemy of enterprise and growth.<\/p>\n\n\n