Three are the causes for which the motion of censure against Sílvia Orriols has failed, who will continue as mayor of Ripoll.
First why: bread for today, and hunger for tomorrow. The Directorate of Junts Per Ripoll adopted a tactical decision that would have led them to win the motion of censure. It had an absolute majority thanks to the support of Junts, ERC, PSC and CUP. In the negotiations, agreements on investments, public policies of social cohesion and housing policy had been reached. They had even argued about European Next Generation funds.
However, relieve from the mayor’s mayor Sílvia Orriols parapodía leads to that, after winning the bread of local power for a couple of years, he could take the sorrow of a hunger period with shortage of governance of Juns in Ripoll during lustra. Because Sylvia Orriols could have passed as Xavier García Albiol, who was replaced by a motion of censure, but returned as mayor of Badalona with an absolute majority.
Second reason: change the mental framework. There are influential sectors of Junts who believe that continuing with the prototypical Juns discourse will not stop the climb of the new extreme right. They need to build another type of story that allows them to stop the strength of the National Popopulism, which extracts voters first of together.
To create the unfavorable climate to the motion of censure in Ripoll, the former president of the Generalitat Artur Mas opened, when he said that “we must differentiate between speaking with Aliança Catalan and making joint strategies with them.” The journalist and writer Pilar Rahola has closed the window of censure: “It is a coup against nature.” The same happened after the municipal elections of 2023, when the former president of the Laura Borràs torpedoed the
Third reason: win a battle, lose the war. This is the main cause because Junts for the Carles Puigdemont party it is essential at all costs that the deputy Sílvia Orriols has time to make a long electoral pre -campaign visiting cities and towns of Catalonia until May 2027, when local elections will be held . Thus, the Juns dome has made a strategic decision. Instead of winning the battle of Ripoll, he preferred not to lose the War of Catalonia.
We observe that the three causes have in common the unconfessable fear of together to the unstoppable rise of Catalan nationalpopulism, as has already happened in other countries with the populist radical right: in the United States with Donald Trump, in Italy with Georgia Meloni, in Geert Countries Wilders, in Austria with Herbert Kickl, in Hungary with Viktor Orbán and in France with Marine Le Pen All of them have reached the institutional cusp. All political parties.
Xavier Torrens. Author of the book Save Catalonia. The gestation of the Catalan -Catalan Populism.
