Sílvia Orriols, from the extreme right-wing formation Aliança Catalana, has finally become mayor of Ripoll after the alternative pact between ERC, PSC and the CUP to make Chantal Pérez (ERC) mayor did not come to fruition.
The sum of the three parties was insufficient and required the support of Junts, something that ultimately has not happened. The alternative pact that Junts had proposed with ERC and the PSC and that excluded the CUP has not had a run either.
Aliança Catalana, which won the elections with 30% of the votes, obtained six representatives. In second place was Junts, with three; the same ones that ERC obtained. The PSC and the CUP obtained two representatives each. And the independent party of Som-hi Ripoll, one.
In the voting for the investiture, Sílvia Orriols obtained six votes, those of her group. Chantal Pérez, who was running for mayor of an alternative government, 7. Those made up of ERC, PSC and the CUP, which last Monday presented a pact to prevent Aliança Catalana from becoming mayor.
A pact, however, that was insufficient and that required the support, at least in the investiture, of Junts, which has finally ended up voting for its candidate, Manoli Vega. Vega, who during her speech raised “leading” a possible motion of no confidence starting this Monday, in recent days had tried to lead an alternative government with ERC and PSC, excluding the CUP, which has not been fruitful either.
After knowing the votes, the new mayoress promised that hers “will not be a government of the extreme right” and promised to govern with “responsibility”, “courage” and “sanity”. “We will govern for the people of Ripoll and not against them,” she said after taking the mayoress’s staff. One of her first priorities is the closure of the mosque.
After knowing the vote of the local Junts group, the JuntsxCat executive, meeting on an extraordinary basis this morning, points out that she “does not share” the decision of her councilors “not to prevent the access to the mayoralty of the Aliança Catalana candidate because it transcends Ripoll”.
The executive has also criticized the “sectarianism of those who have prevented a pact for a central government, especially those who have exercised vetoes to obtain partisan advantage.”
They remember that yesterday they agreed with the ERC and the PSC on a proposal to create a central government in Ripoll headed by Junts that “broke down in the afternoon for reasons that we do not know and that have led to the events that occurred today.”
They regret that “partisanship has prevailed over the necessary unity against fascism” and point out that “party interests, sectarianism and political myopia have prevented a stable and strong central government.”
Even so, he considers that the situation “is reversible” and calls on the rest of the political forces to “start negotiations from today to agree on a new municipal government.”
