After a week of unsuccessful four-party negotiations, Ripoll will comply with what was dictated by the polls and will have Sílvia Orriols, leader of the extreme right-wing independence party Aliança Catalana, as mayor.. In the capital of the Ripollés region, with a population of over 10,000 people, 4,622 voted on May 28, of which 1,401 opted for the extremist formation.

This gave them six of the 17 councilors. The most voted force, but far from the majority. Since then, the ERC, the PSC, the CUP and Junts have worked to negotiate a joint alternative that would serve as a sanitary cordon against Aliança Catalana. Together they could have achieved ten councilors, one more than necessary. However, the agreement was broken by Junts, the second most voted party, with 760 supports. Days before, Laura Borràs expressed her support for the most voted list to govern and her refusal to establish sanitary cordons.

In reality, the irruption of Aliança Catalana coincides with the collapse of Junts, which have gone from eight to three councilors between 2019 and 2023. Much of his voter base has moved to the party of the new mayor. It is not the only place in Catalonia where this has happened: in La Masó, a small town in Tarragona, they have gone from having 7 Junts councilors to a mayor from the Front Nacional de Catalunya, another extreme right-wing, anti-immigration Catalan party.

Everyone expected the candidacy led by Sílvia Orriols to increase in votes, but not so much. The surprise came at the time of the scrutiny, when Aliança Catalana took control of six of the 17 councilors in Ripoll (Girona) and almost doubled the votes of the second most voted list, Junts per Ripoll. The tidal wave between Catalan ultranationalism and right-wing radicalism thus found a gap like never before, based on fear of the different and an alert regarding immigration.

“We will unilaterally declare independence and we will defend it until we definitively expel the Spanish State from Catalonia”, reads the first proposal that the far-right party shows on its website. “We will reach the highest standard of living for the Catalans and we will make the industry return to Catalonia”, he continues.

Regarding immigration and security, they defend the following: “We will promote those immigration policies that benefit Catalans, not foreigners. And we will establish a policy of zero tolerance towards citizen insecurity, Islamic radicalism and terrorism.”. As for society and the family, from Aliança Catalana they assure that they will defend equality before the law and the model of Catalan society and family based on values and education.

The Maghrebi collective, on target

Not much more can be said about the values of Orriols, everything is made explicit in her four years of work as a councilor in the opposition of the Ripolles consistory. Sponsored by the Front Nacional, an organization in which he was never a member, but which gave him his first position as mayor. Later, the ultranationalist leader left the party for prioritizing independence over the immigration issue.. “I cannot say that it is from the extreme right, but it is xenophobic. He has created a discourse based on fear with a clear obsession against the North African collective”, says Manoli Vega, Junts per Ripoll candidate and head of the second most voted list with 760 votes.

Vega is one of the people who, until the last moment, has had it in his power to prevent Orriols from taking over the municipal government. For that, almost a miracle had to happen: that both the ERC, the PSC, the CUP and Junts agreed. “We are trying to reach a pact like anywhere else, not to kick anyone out but to govern,” says the mayor before trying to change the image that many Spaniards will be making of the municipality: “I understand the sanitary cordons, but I important now is that we are the capital of the region with the least crime and the immigration rate is not higher than anywhere else, and there is no fear in the streets”, in his own terms.

Orriols, after all, has been doing that kind of politics for four years.. and it has soaked. “In many houses in the territory, if we eat with friends, in the end there is one who says that he has heard that I don't know which foreigner has been given help, or that they pay him everything… That has permeated to the point that he has won the elections,” Vega expands.

Nor greet in the halls

The shock forces that are trying to stop the Government of Aliança Catalana have tried to flee from the media coverage of the matter to focus and create a political program according to what everyone is after: that there is no lack of work, housing and decent minimum resources. But of course, that's like talking about freedom and equality. Nobody opposes them, everyone is in favor. The question is what do they mean for each political option and how do you intend to achieve them?. “I think it would be very good to reflect on what is happening and why people have voted for this, and if people are insecure, think about what we can do to make it not the case,” adds Vega herself..

This councilor has been part of the party that has governed the municipality for the last four years, Junts. “I only think that if instead of having one Silvia, there are six, sailor fabric,” he says. “We hope to have a calm mandate, for the good of all,” he adds.. Vega has experienced firsthand Orriols' behavior towards his fellow council members: “Although we have different ideas, when we see each other we all greet each other. Everyone except her,” he explains in his own terms..

For this reason, it seems that the sanitary cordon has been made by Orriols herself, paraphrasing the words of the Junts candidate. “Even in some motion presented by Orriols that could have been approved, the tone and the forms of the exhibition meant that we could not vote in favor,” Vega continues recounting the leader of Aliança Catalana.

impossible proposals

Beyond the proposals that the Aliança Catalana postulates on its website and against which the PSC, ERC and the CUP have signed an agreement pending the support of Junts, there are also doubts as to whether it is better not to carry out the sanitary cordon due to its conflicting results in Europe. Perhaps if they came to power, the people could see the impossibility of their proposals. In this case, immigrants are prohibited from registering and prevent them from receiving social assistance, which is illegal.

Regarding the economic program, Orriols advocates abolishing the inheritance tax and reducing the self-employed and personal income tax contributions while promoting the culture of effort and savings. On a social level, Aliança Catalana opts for eliminating the protection of the LGTBI collective and making Catalan the only official language in the municipal area.

The town of Ripoll is inserted in the Spanish collective imagination because it is the place from which the jihadist cell came from, which in August 2017 attacked Barcelona and Cambrils, leaving 16 people murdered.. “That's where Orriols came from when he got a councilor in 2019, from the fear that existed in society sponsored by speeches like his, which defend that all migrants are terrorists,” says Vega, the Junts candidate for mayor.

Be that as it may, Orriols did not always have the same speech on immigration. In one of his harangues in the Consistory, he said that “Catalonia has been enduring immigration for 70 years”, in clear reference to migrants from other parts of the Spanish state.. “It looked like the one with 8 Catalan surnames. The reality is that my name is Manoli Vega Segura and my parents were Andalusian and my grandson's name is Jordi and he has Catalan surnames. This is the world,” says the mayor of Junts.

Part of the town mobilized

Despite having been the list with the most votes, there are some residents of Ripoll who do not resign themselves to being governed by someone with the label of xenophobic and ultranationalist. For this reason, a call that is not signed by any specific organization called for a gathering in front of the City Hall on the same Saturday, June 17, the day the new corporation took office, at 11:00 a.m.. “Against fascism and intolerance” was the call to attend, making it clear that “Ripoll is not a town of exclusion and hatred but a land of passage and welcome”.

In the statement by the conveners, who have pasted some posters around the municipality and distributed pamphlets in various mailboxes, according to internal sources of the consistory, they affirm that there is some discomfort generated by the economic crisis, the increase in food prices, the difficult access to housing and gender violence. “The party that has won the elections gives as a solution to all the hatred and discrimination of migrants. It demonizes them and makes them guilty of the social problems we are experiencing,” they respond in the same text..

However, they have not been able to alter the course of events in any way. Around noon this Saturday, Orriols raised the baton that made her Ripoll's top political officer.