Xavier Rius Sant: "Aliança Catalana is like a sect because everyone obeys Sílvia Orriols"

BarcelonaThe journalist specialized in the extreme right, Xavier Rius Sant (Barcelona, ​​​​1959), analyzes in Aliança Catalana: our ultras (Icària Editorial) the emergence and growth of the party led by Sílvia Orriols, who has worked in the JERC (Spanish Nationalist Party), Estat Català (Catalan State), the Intransigentes group, and the National Front of Catalonia (Catalan National Front) before creating her own party.

How would you define Orriols ideologically?

— He's someone who first attacked Castilian immigration. In one of the articles he writes as a member of the Intransigents, he says that "I would prefer a Catalan Catalonia within mediocre Spain 10,000 times over than a free Castilian Catalonia." And now he attacks Muslim immigration and manages to win over people who aren't pro-independence, who agree that he should stand up to immigration. Many of them don't like Vox because of the abortion issue.

But you mention that Vox is the first bastard child of the Proceso, and Aliança, the second. Why?

— Vox was the first unintended child of the Process for its defense of the Spanish nation. And Aliança managed to seduce the electorate disenchanted with the Process by accusing the pro-independence parties of deceiving them because people believed we would become independent in two years.

Without the disillusionment with the Process and the 2017 attacks, wouldn't Alianza have entered the institutions?

— It would have been nothing more than a new Platform for Catalonia, municipal in scope, but with a pro-independence approach. The Alliance draws on the conspiracy behind the attacks, the rejection of immigration, and the paralysis of the Process. If she weren't mayor, the media wouldn't have covered her policies, and she wouldn't have entered Parliament.

Orriols is xenophobic, she says, because of her comments on social media more than her policies.

— It's not racist to say that multiple repeat offenders should be expelled, but it is racist to post a photo of Muslim seasonal workers in Andalusia withdrawing money at an ATM, ironically claiming they're coming to pay our pensions, or of commuter train passengers denouncing that "the human landscape is shocking" because they come from diverse backgrounds. They always repeat that for every immigrant who comes to work, there are ten or a hundred who come to commit crimes or live off benefits.

Why did 8TV promote Sílvia Orriols?

— Silvia Orriols multiplied the audience, and she has a good relationship with Pilar Rahola, a collaborator. Rahola and Antoni Castellà [vice president of Junts] took a photo with Sílvia Orriols on the 8TV set. A photo they would never have taken with Josep Anglada or Ignacio Garriga.

What role does Rahola play in Silvia Orriols' rise?

— He called Carles Puigdemont to advise him against removing Silvia Orriols with the vote of no confidence. But the problem had been there for a long time. If Joaquim Colomer had been Junts' candidate for Ripoll and hadn't founded a new party in the last municipal elections, Aliança wouldn't have won by such a margin. But many Ripoll residents didn't see Manoli Vega, who would ultimately lead the list, as one of their own, but rather as a nouveau riche, and they didn't support her.

Silvia Orriols said she wouldn't duplicate positions, but a congress was held to reform the statutes and allow her to be a deputy.

— When Orriols left the National Front, she said she wanted to build a project to save Catalonia, and she couldn't do it from Ripoll. She exudes humility, but at the same time, arrogance. She always emphasizes that she was born on October 9th, the day the Catalans drove the Saracens out of the Valencian Community. When she entered Parliament, she tweeted a photo of Guifré el Pilós's tomb, saying, "It all began here." She believes it. And, besides, since everyone else is doing so poorly, they take it all in her favor.

Is there hyper-leadership of Silvia Orriols in Alianza?

— David Subirana, her ex-partner, was her mainstay until their recent separation. Those who help her now are her advisors in Parliament, Jordi Coma, former number two on the list for Girona, and Oriol Gès, the party's organizational secretary. But Alianza functions like a cult. Everything revolves around her. Everyone obeys the leader because she is everything in Alianza. The clearest example is the tribute held for the victims of the 17-A attack on August 18 in Ripoll.

What happened?

— The City Council invited the Civil Guard and the National Police to the event, and Silvia Orriols ordered her councilors to applaud them when they laid the tribute to the monument, despite the fact that her party also maintains the conspiracy theory that the National Police (CNI) was involved in the attacks. Many people didn't understand, because it's one thing not to whistle at them, but quite another to applaud them, something other mayors or residents didn't do. She makes the decisions. All of them.