Sílvia Orriols has turned the Parliament’s chamber into her most effective set. She does not participate in committees and disappears when other groups question the Government. They do not interest her. Orriols makes the most of her five minutes of confrontation with the President of the Generalitat and is capable of causing chaos with a single sentence: “I’ll use the remaining seconds to thank you for the budgets and for dismantling the PSC in Ripoll. An unprecedented masterstroke,” she told Salvador Illa on Wednesday. Orriols’ defiant tone is proportional to the rise that polls give to Aliança Catalana and the inability of the other parties to adapt to institutional cohabitation with the independentist far-right.
Read more Hungarian Rhapsody in Barcelona
There are no sanitary cordons dictated from headquarters that immunize an entire organization. And next year’s municipal elections will show the cracks in all of them. Orriols cannot find her media candidate for Barcelona; the chosen ones have backed out, but analysts take it for granted that the brand will be enough for Aliança to enter the City Council, even more so when the number of councillors will increase from 41 to 43.
Aliança Catalana has its headquarters in Barcelona, but Orriols never uses it. She presents her lead candidates in the Parliament’s press room, something unheard of in the Chamber. Amposta, Berga… The ability to present candidacies will define its territorial implementation for the Catalan elections and its coexistence with Vox. The C-25 axis, between Cervera and Caldes de Malavella, is Orriols territory; while Santiago Abascal’s party, despite donning the barretina, concentrates voting intentions in its particular Tabarnia.
The left-wing parties’ argument states that Aliança threatens Junts’ more than 330 mayoralties, although many of them are in small towns with a single list; and, in Junts, they reply that the emergence of Orriols’ party will also make alternative majorities difficult. The Electoral System Law establishes that, if there is no absolute majority, the councillor with the most votes is proclaimed mayor.
Ripoll offers lessons for everyone. The “she won’t last six months” was imprudent. Orriols survives due to the failure of blocking majorities without constructive will. The pact that was supposed to keep her out of the mayoralty in 2023 fell apart due to partisan interest; and not even the contact between Oriol Junqueras and Carles Puigdemont served to weave last year’s motion of no confidence. Then, a meeting between Junts and Aliança unleashed a sea of criticism; and now, two abstentions from the PSC facilitate Orriols’ approval of the municipal budgets without “wasting time.”
Read more Macron announces the death of a French UN soldier in Lebanon and points to Hezbollah
Orriols’ team had met with Junts, ERC, and the PSC. More than once. Orriols has withdrawn aid to municipal groups, fines those who demonstrate in front of the town hall, and threatens anyone who challenges her by publicizing messages about their political contacts on social media. “It’s a circus,” admit those at the top. No party will repeat a candidate in Ripoll.
Will Sumar pact with “racists”? Will PSC and ERC pact with Junts to block Orriols?
If anyone in the PSC intended for the procession to be internal, they erred. The local group has been dismantled with a public confrontation, and Illa’s strategy has been exposed. The president was until now Orriols’ nemesis in Parliament. In the last control session, he had to repeat eight times that neither his Government nor his party would pact with the far-right. Illa cemented his anti-Orriols containment wall with “No to war.” The leader of Aliança is not only a staunch defender of Benjamin Netanyahu but also received the war in Iran with “much hope.”
With electoral competition, the staging increases, and the boundaries for defining the enemy blur. Yolanda Díaz calls Junts “racist,” upsets Puigdemont, relationships break down… The vice-president was the first to “rehabilitate” the former president for political convenience, but now, on her way out, she wants to associate her profile with policies further to the left of the PSOE. She disavows investiture partners by placing them alongside Orriols. If electoral arithmetic allows an alternative to PP and Vox, will Sumar pact with “racists”? Will PSC and ERC pact with Junts to block Orriols? What a temptation…
Read more Iran reimposes restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz due to US blockade.
