Silvia Orriols's Doberman

BarcelonaTwo Fridays ago, the second deputy mayor of Ripoll, Guillem Barranqueras, raised his middle finger at journalist Xavier Rius during the rally of former mayors of Ripoll against the "repression and censorship" of the municipal government. He made this contemptuous gesture in response to the publication of the book Our ultras, which has caused great discomfort among Alianza councilors. Just before, the Finance Councilor had already confronted Rius in a bar while being interviewed. "Beneit" or "liar" were some of the insults he threw at him in attacks that had already begun on social media, calling him a "pig" or a "liar" after ARA published an interview with Ríos in which he said Alianza was a "sect".

This is not a one-off incident. The second deputy mayor, who had not been a candidate before, is known for his outbursts both in plenary sessions and especially on social media. "He doesn't leak information, nor does he have the desire to," criticize opposition sources, who regret that Mayor Sílvia Orriols doesn't call him to order. In fact, when he made a fuss in Rius, the leader of Aliança, far from reproving him, justified his actions. Nor did she fire him when he called the drag queens of "brainless, useless to society" just three months after Orriols, on the other hand, did distance himself from the mayor of Ribera de Ondara for calling the LGBTI movement a "cancer."

Barranqueras is firing all kinds of shots. "If anyone dares to criticize them, they have a license to say anything," denounce the same sources, who lament that "they're flouting the rules." And the second deputy mayor, along with the Councilor for Culture, Albert Santandreu, is the great battering ram in this crusade against dissent. "He's Orriols' Doberman; he has that attitude of protector and squire of the Alianza leader," notes another opposition source. This is not a gratuitous comparison. The image Barranqueras has on his X profile is that of the Doberman he owns.

A dog for which he was fined before taking office in 2021, for mutilating its ears and tail without veterinary supervision, breaking the animal protection law, and for not having a license for owning and driving potentially purebred animals. "Before, she walked the Doberman she has, and now she walks Orriols," other sources joke, also ironically, due to the fact that she often acts as a chauffeur because the mayor doesn't have a driver's license. "The Doberman figure suits her because he's the person who defends her to the death with an intimidating tone," complains Som-hi Ripoll councilor, Joaquim Colomer. "Previously, that role was played by her husband, David Subirana, who was on the verge of attacking the then CUP councilor, Dani Vilaseca, in a plenary session, but now he does it," he emphasizes.

Insult to an opposition councilor in a plenary session

Colomer was the latest victim of Barranqueras' disrespect. Three full houses ago, he told him asshole after the former Junts councilor reproached him for not stopping making comments and gestures while he was speaking. "Orriols doesn't let the councilors of his government speak and while I was speaking, he kept gesticulating and I told him that if he was so brave, he should speak and he insulted me," explains Colomer. He didn't listen to him, but the spokesperson for ERC, Chantal Pérez, did and asked Orriols to urge him to rectify, but he didn't do so, claiming that he had insulted him before.

"Orriols has two core groups, the more personal and familiar, which are his Ripoll councilors, and the more political, which are the members of the national leadership of Aliança, such as Jordi Aragonès, Oriol Gès, Aurora Fornos and Lluís Areny," emphasizes Xavier Torrens, author of Save Catalonia, the other book about the xenophobic movement. And with the former, the mayor always stands together. And her council members, too. "When they're not with her, they greet you on the street, but if they're with her, they all stand at attention," says another member of the opposition.

The councilor also attacked ERC at the national level for its pacts with the PSOE. The biggest blow came from former councilor Dolors Bassa. "Besides being a whore, you make the bed," he retorted, using a cliché.

ERC spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, and Parliamentary Representative Najat Driouech, with whom Orriols has already clashed several times over wearing the veil, are other Republican leaders whom Barranqueras has openly attacked. In the second, he called her "sick" and even asked her when she would run in the Moroccan elections.

The CUP, which is highly confrontational with Aliança, has also been attacked by Barranqueras. He told Roger Jordà, one of the members of the CUP's candidacy, that his "brain has atrophied" after he criticized Orriols for his hate speech against Muslims.

He has also insulted CUP deputies, although in this case it was only to denounce that A militant from Sant Cugat del Vallés gives the Nazi salute.