The motion of censure that Acord Municipal-ERC and the far-right independence party Aliança Catalana were negotiating against the socialist mayor of Ribera d’Ondara (Lleida) will go ahead. As La Vanguardia has learned, both groups will register the formal proposal to unseat the current PSC mayor, Francesc Sabanés, in which they justify the initiative due to “the poor functioning of the City Council, the lack of transparency, poor management, suspicions of corruption” and “in order to improve services in the municipality and work for all neighbors.”
The agreement between the republican coalition and the only councilor of Sílvia Orriols’ ultra party in the municipality will be formalized after the controversy unleashed a week ago after these intentions became known. As a consequence of this negotiation, ERC began the procedures to expel the only councilor assigned to its ranks, the spokesperson for the Acord per Ribera d’Ondara group Elisabet Jové, after Oriol Junqueras’s party showed its disagreement with a pact of this type with a training that he considers “xenophobic”. But before her expulsion took place, the republican leader presented her resignation from ERC militancy, as recently published by the Catalan News Agency (ACN). In this way, Jové ensures the possibility of moving forward with the process to unseat Sabanés without having to face retaliation from her party.
Esquerra does not want to know anything about the agreement, which is why it has proceeded to launch the procedures to disengage and separate its name from the municipal group in which the three members are no longer part of the party. The legal representatives of the Republicans have already presented the documentation for this purpose and trust that the entire bureaucratic process will not last more than 30 days. It is for this reason that ERC will not be able to prevent its name from still appearing in the motion of censure if it is debated in a few days. Esquerra’s link today is merely nominal.
After that resignation, Jové and the rest of the municipal group – made up of independent leaders – Maria Castellà and Yolanda Tasies, signed the proposed motion of censure together with Albert Puig, the only mayor of Aliança Catalana in the municipality’s council, thus The motion of censure, which will be held ten days after the registration of the proposal, will be debated in a specific plenary session and will be advanced by an absolute majority.
In the agreement for the motion of censure, it is specified that Jové is the new mayor of the municipality, “delegating the powers of the mayor that the law allows to Albert Puig until September 1, 2024.”
The case of this council became relevant as a result of ERC’s policy of pacts with the far-right independence party that governs Ripoll. Aliança Catalana, which has 8 councilors throughout Catalonia (six in Ripoll, one in Ribera d’Ondara and another in Manlleu), has been under fire for its speech on immigration in Catalonia.
The recent statements by mayors of Junts in Maresme, in favor of the expulsion of repeat immigrants, and the negotiation for the transfer of powers over immigration between Puigdemont’s party and the PSOE provoked angry criticism from ERC and the PSC. Both parties have accused Junts of letting the agenda be set by the Orriols party in Catalonia, which is why the Republicans have tried to avoid by all means the pact between the coalition linked to their initials and Aliança Catalana in the municipality of Lleida.
