The mayors of Junts of the Maresme region demand the expulsion of repeat immigrants. The party and its general secretary, Jordi Turull, fully supported that speech and today ERC has opened fire against the post-convergents, considering that this position brings JxCat closer to the “ultras or extreme right” formations. This was stated by Raquel Sans, spokesperson for the Republicans. Associating crime with migration “is very dangerous, and that is what the extreme right usually does,” she said.
Junts’ positioning does not take Oriol Junqueras’ team by surprise. In ERC there is a conviction that Jordi Turull and Laura Borràs are repositioning themselves to combat the approach of far-right pro-independence groups. This is the case of Aliança Catalana, led by the mayor of Ripoll, Sílvia Orriols, who is openly Islamophobic. ERC believes that JxCat is trying to prevent a small group of its voters, even if they are not fully identified with the ultra ideology, from opting in the future for Orriols’ candidacy in a more forceful Catalan election, and thus undermining their aspirations.
In any case, Sans wanted to emphasize that Esquerra is totally in favor of addressing the debate on criminal recidivism, “but it can never be done by simplifying the discourse and pointing and singling out migrant people,” because, in his opinion, it is contributes to their dehumanization and encourages “hate speech.”
“The question is: what happens to people who repeat offenses and are born in Catalonia? Is there no solution for them?” the spokesperson asked rhetorically. In fact, in 2022, a reform to the Penal Code was approved at the proposal of the PDECat along these lines and imposed prison sentences of between 6 and 18 months for thefts of less than 400 euros, as long as there was recidivism. Until then, article 234 of the Penal Code decreed imprisonment when the theft was greater than 400 euros and was limited to a fine if the value was less.
According to Sans, ERC wants to address this issue “with rigor and seriousness.” “There is no one who is more interested in seeing these sentences carried out than the Mossos d’Esquadra, who are the ones who arrest them,” she stressed, while demanding “responsibility in the face of certain speeches.”
The debate on immigration is now extensive in Catalonia. One of the conditions that Carles Puigdemont put on the table for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez was the transfer to Catalonia regarding immigration. It did not bear fruit. Nor did the former president of the Generalitat link this issue with security, but he made it clear in his conference on September 5 that Catalonia has “the highest immigration rate of the entire peninsula, 16.2%, more than two points above that of Madrid, and lacks the powers or resources to manage it”.
