Silvia Orriols' failed signings to eliminate competition

BarcelonaNeither Lluís Areny nor Aurora Fornos were to be the candidates of the Catalan Alliance in Barcelona and Tarragona in the last elections to the Parliament. According to ARA, the party proposed to the two visible leaders of the National Front of Catalonia (FNC), whose party Sílvia Orriols split from, to lead the lists for the elections in these two districts. They are Sergi Perramon, councillor in Manresa, and Albert Camps, the mayor of Masó, the only two towns where the Front has representation. However, both leaders rejected Orriols, who if he had succeeded in his proposal would have definitively put an end to his direct competition in the far right independence movement.

Perramon confirms that the president of Aliança herself called him to be number 1 for Barcelona on 12-M: "Sílvia Orriols made me a formal proposal to head the Aliança candidacy for Barcelona, ​​​​but I declined because I wanted to focus on municipal politics, because Manresa is a square."

The success of the Front in the capital of Bages, where it landed with two councilors and 6.5% of the votes in its debut in the municipal elections, did not go unnoticed in Orriols. "The objective was to open an electoral gap with a more dialoguing profile that would act as a counterweight," says Perramon, who in the next municipal elections wants to create an independent platform that groups together the entire right and without going under the umbrella of the Front.

The Aliança president's bet also involved a key role in the struggle between two of the party's heavyweights. Jordi Aragonès, secretary of studies and programs, and Oriol Gès, secretary of organization and finances, who were fighting to lead the list in Barcelona. After Perramon's refusal to run in the elections, Orriols opted for a Solomonic decision by placing Areny at the head of the list (they were 0.16% short of obtaining a deputy for this demarcation, just over 3,000 votes).

Orriols also tried to head the Tarragona list with the young mayor of La Masó, who won the municipal elections by an absolute majority after convincing the members of the candidacy to run under his name, although None of them knew what the Front was.. "I said no because I am still a member of the Front and because I had already committed to being the head of the Front list in Tarragona," explains Camps.

Despite the electoral setback of the Front, where it only received 264 votes (0.01%) compared to Alianza's 118,302, the mayor continues to defend his party's project: "The Front says what I think and I don't care that it added Campo, Gerona and Lérida.

Discomfort among the Front's leadership

Orriols' offer to the two representatives of the Front caused great discomfort in the party leadership. "I called him to tell him to leave my people alone and that if he wanted councillors from our party to call me directly, but he dodged the issue," reveals Jordi Casacuberta, secretary general of the FNC. The top leader of this party has no doubt that Aliança's intention is to finish them off: "They are trying to make the Front disappear in Manresa and everywhere, but they will not succeed and we will not join the Alliance because we do not see ourselves celebrating the result of Alternative for Germany together with Vox," he says in reference to the displays of support. "The big fish does not always eat the little one because the latter can escape or continue swimming," he says about the viability of the Front at the height of Aliança and after recalling the Ciutadans debacle. "Arrimadas won the elections in Catalonia and now sells solar panels in Cadiz," he concludes.