BarcelonaIn the last municipal elections, Aliança Catalana, which was making its debut, won representation in three localities: Ripoll, Manlleu and Ribera d’Ondara. In the capital of Ripollès, the candidacy led by Sílvia Orriols went from 1 to 6 councilors and obtained the mayorship thanks to the disagreement of the other political forces.
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In Ribera d’Ondara, the far-right pro-independence party went from having the provisional mayor to being left without representatives after the leadership distanced itself from the then leader, Albert Puig, for statements in which he called the LGBTI group a “cancer”. The ties of the ex-mayor with the members of the candidacy meant that number 2 became a non-affiliated councilor and that the Catalan Alliance project in Ribera d’Ondara ended up dying.
In Manlleu, on the other hand, the formation continues to be present at the plenary sessions, despite the resignation of the head of the list, Roger Saborit, who gave his place to a well-known Spanish supporter in the municipality, Jordi Rierola. The fact is that in the second largest city of Osona there might not be a list of Aliança Catalana in the next elections. According to ARA, last Friday, the regional management called a coordination meeting, in the course of which the president of the party in Osona, Marina Quintana, hinted that there would be no candidacy.
This is what Quintana explained after Rierola told him not to hold informational stops in Manlleu, as they do in dozens of municipalities every weekend. Quintana replied that the stops had not been successful and that they were not efficient in generating income, according to sources present at the meeting.
This led to a heated argument between the two that capitalized much of the meeting. Rierola, who does not want to be mayor, defended that he had to insist, but Quintana countered that there were no interested people, implying that they would drop Manlleu if no group appeared willing to promote a candidacy. This threat infuriated Rierola, who recalled that Manlleu is a fiefdom and that Aliança Catalana already has representation there.
In this scenario, Quintana announced that there is a desire to hold an event in Manlleu in March, with the presence of the president of the party, Sílvia Orriols, which presumably should serve to encourage the people of the municipality to make a list with guarantees and put an end to the reservations in the face of the reluctance of many members to get involved in the project. Sources of the party in Manlleu are aware that if they don’t stand up there will be no candidacy. “It’s like we have a parked car and it runs out of battery. If we don’t move, the party won’t do anything.”
The presence of the extreme right in the capital of Ter comes from afar. Plataforma per Catalunya (PxC) landed in Vic in 2003, but it also did so in neighboring Manlleu with a councilor thanks to the almost 500 votes (5.6%) that it achieved as a result of discontent with the first waves of migration from Morocco. Four years later, Josep Anglada’s party doubled the number of votes and councilors with the support of 13.35% of the electorate, and in 2011 it climbed to 3 councilors and 1,112 votes (15%). The internal crisis over the leadership of the party and the arrival of the Process meant that in 2015 the extreme right was left with only 149 votes (2.16%).
The five municipalities of Osona where Catalan Alliance will be presented
In the meantime, Aliança Catalana will continue to prioritize the stops in the five municipalities of the region where it is clear that it will present itself. One of these five is Roda de Ter, precisely where Quintana is already a councilor after the head of the list of an independent formation that was born from a split from Junts folded in May last year. Quintana will be the mayor of the town where the poet Miquel Martí i Pol was born.
Vic is another of the localities where Aliança Catalana will also present a candidacy and everything points, according to the sources consulted, that the number 2 of the party, Oriol Gès, secretary of organization and finance and general coordinator of the group in Parliament, could be the head of the list. The rest of Osona’s mayors will leave the county management: in Centelles it will be the secretary of organization, Carles Fresquet, while in Torelló everything points to the treasurer, Francesc Teres, who will head the list. The last municipality where Aliança Catalana is close to presenting a battle is Tona, where it is not yet clear who will be the candidate.
