Catalan Alliance aborts an internal rebellion with expulsion files

The leadership of Aliança Catalana has nipped in the bud an internal revolt by militants from different regions who were demanding more internal democracy. The trigger was a letter promoted and signed by these affiliates, in which they demanded that the party's participation in the general elections be put to a vote. A debate that the president of the organization, Sílvia Orriols, stopped in its tracks by threatening to leave the party if the leadership opted to make the leap to Congress. "The day the governing committee decides otherwise, I will tear up my membership card and go back to working as an administrative assistant in the private sector," she wrote in a tweet, facing the rumblings from part of the base and even some members of the leadership who were defending it privately.

The fact is that this internal revolt has resulted, as ARA has learned, in six members being disciplined, who will end up being expelled from the organization. Beyond running in the elections, these militants were promoting an internal movement to demand more democratic functioning of the party. But the governing committee did not want to wait for it to go further, with the possibility that more militants would join in, and it notified the individuals involved of the disciplinary proceedings on October 22.

The document sent to those affected is categorical. One of those involved is accused of promoting "a concerted action and incitement of an internal multi-regional revolt." And they cite as an example the fact that he made public dissemination of a "seditious writing" on X, in reference to the letter requesting a consultation on participation in the general elections, which garnered, the document highlights, "almost 5,000 views," and in which he defended the need to run in these elections. "This public dissemination represented a deliberate display of defiance of the party's agreements before thousands of external followers, which even reached the press," adds the document signed by Orriols.

In conversation with the ARA, the affected person criticizes that "other militants have advocated running in the elections and nothing has happened to them". "«Sílvia says so»; this is the response given by the majority of militants when you reproach them for not having consulted the grassroots on whether to participate in the elections", denounces another of those who have been subject to disciplinary proceedings. And he stresses that the regional elections are based on the same legal regime as the general ones and that there are issues that are the competence of the State. "Pensions and immigration do not depend on the Generalitat, and income tax returns are not paid in Italy or Germany", he points out in reference to the statements made by Orriols, in which she said that they were not participating in the Spanish elections just as they were not participating in the Italian or German ones.

Warning to the dissent

"The reaction is disproportionate and out of place, authoritarianism flows from their very core," he adds regarding the disciplinary file opened against them. In this sense, he believes it is a warning to dissent in a monolithic party that functions vertically, with all power concentrated in the hands of its leader. "They are bothered by people who disagree and are looking for obedient people," he concludes.

Another of those involved is reproached for having sent messages against the decision adopted regarding the electoral call to the groups the party has on Telegram at a local and regional level, "participating in a structured internal revolt with members of other regional branches to challenge the decision of the governing committee and its president, Sílvia Orriols." Thus, the leadership considers that freedom of expression does not override compliance with adopted resolutions: "The freedom to express discrepancies within statutory channels does not exempt one from complying with validly adopted agreements. And in any case, discrepancies can never be expressed publicly, on social media or by disseminating them through groups, in a way that third parties outside the party could have access to them." A warning so that no affiliate dares to question a decision agreed upon by the party leadership in the future.