The mayor of Ripoll, Sílvia Orriols, leader of Aliança Catalana, a far-right pro-independence party that will compete in the Catalan elections on May 12, has decided to veto the most voted poster for the Sant Eudald festival because it appears a girl with a veil. The poster was chosen by a jury among 10 other posters voted for by the population and is the work of the illustrator Ivonne Navarro.
It is a colorful proposal starring people and characters of all kinds. What the government team did not like is that a girl with a veil appeared at the bottom. Orriols herself has justified the decision to disqualify the poster as “not normalizing Islamic misogyny.” As the mayor herself explains in a message on the social network X – formerly Twitter – the author has refused to remove the veiled girl from the illustration.
The organizing committee of the party announced it, alleging a “political decision totally unrelated to it that has led to the resignation of the winner.” And announcing that, as a consequence, the second most voted will become the official poster. The poster finally chosen stars Sant Eudald, patron saint of the town, the rooster and the giants of the city.
All opposition parties have unanimously condemned this fact, speaking of “censorship”, “nonsense” and “barbarism”. JxCat has described it as “barbarbasada” demanding that the culture councilor “apologize” for the removal of the poster for “political reasons.”
ERC, for its part, has condemned it with a phrase: “Silvia Orriols’ obsession with the veil changes the poster of the Festival”, while the PSC spokesperson in the city, Enric Pérez, has also denounced the censorship : “This is the democratic level we have in Ripoll, censorship is dictatorship.”
The CUP has expressed itself along a similar line, describing the decision as “shameful” due to censorship and “denying the popular will” expressed at the fair. Finally, the councilor of Som-hi Ripoll, Joaquim Colomer, has spoken of “imposition” in the decision of the winner and censorship: “Shameful and, as you see, censorship still exists in Ripoll.”
