Aliança Catalana has also knocked on Junts' door in Girona. But in this case, to test Carles Ribas, a lawyer and councilor in the city from 2011 to 2020, as reported by Mariona Ferrer i Fornells to ARA. In recent months, his social media activity has increased with videos denouncing insecurity and dirtiness problems in Girona. In 2023, he ran using the electoral rights he had from Junts under the Ara Girona brand, with which he did not get any councilors, but he did garner 1,579 votes. A support that was key for Junts, led by Gemma Geis, to finish below Guanyem –the brand with which Lluc Salellas ran– in the last municipal elections.Ribas knows very well that he was an invisible factor in Junts' defeat. And Carles Puigdemont too. Not long ago, just before Christmas, the lawyer and former councilor traveled to Waterloo (Brussels) to meet with the former president of the Generalitat, with the intention that he would join Junts' list. Puigdemont knew that it was necessary to deactivate a potentially good candidate for Aliança Catalana in Girona. In fact, the PSC has also sounded out Ribas to join their lists. According to Ribas himself, the far-right party has contacted him more than once. Now, the debate he has on the table is whether to join Junts' list, after Geis has already been ratified for re-election, or to lead another one. A wear and tear, also economic, that he is not eager to face.Regarding leading Aliança Catalana's candidacy in Girona, which still does not have a firm name, Ribas assures that he shares some of Sílvia Orriols' party's messages, but "not in their entirety". "I am a person of order, and I believe I even bother Aliança Catalana," he said at the end of March in a discussion on municipal radio, Girona FM. Be that as it may, he is eager to remain involved in politics and, if he were to run, it would be within Junts' list, despite the disagreements he maintains with Geis.
Catalan Alliance fails in attempt to sign the mayor of Figueres
The far-right party tried to tempt Jordi Masquef last November, but received a no from the juntaire
BarcelonaWith the municipal elections of 2027 on the horizon, Aliança Catalana has been activating its machinery for months to find candidates, including a takeover bid for Junts officials and from the convergent space with the aim of incorporating them into their lists. But amidst meetings and calls left and right, there was an operation that was cooked up last year that aimed to take away the mayor of an entire county capital. As ARA has been able to learn, Aliança Catalana tried to sign the mayor of Figueres, Jordi Masquef, without success. An intermediary, Miquel, a grassroots militant of the far-right party in Empordà, contacted the Junts mayor, with whom they already knew each other. The mayor responded to his messages in November, stalled him, and finally rejected the offer, according to informed sources.
The conversations did not have Masquef's yesOrriols fully amends, starting with the concept of Catalan identityAccording to sources consulted by ARA, Masquef kept responding to the messages he received without ever giving any indication whether he would accept Orriols' proposal or not. Arnau Liesa, who is proposing himself to be Aliança Catalana's candidate for mayor in the capital of Alt Empordà, on the other hand, assures that Aliança never sounded out Masquef to be the head of the list and that it was the mayor who contacted the far-right party. In February, Liesa and a disgruntled former employee of Masquef – who is being sued – spread these accusations on social media, when the operation had already failed completely more than two months prior. Be that as it may, the mayor of Figueres is "well regarded" within Aliança, which tried to fish a big fish, despite defining itself as Orriols fully amends, starting with the concept of Catalan identity.
Masquef is one of the mayors who has clearly put more concepts, such as order and security, on the table. Among other things, he has completely rejected the massive regularization of immigrants and has made repeat offending one of his battlehorses –although without linking it to immigration–. These are precisely some of the issues that Aliança Catalana has in mind for the municipal elections, where the cultural (and police) battle against Islam will be one of the far-right's slogans. Masquef has warned of the "pull effect" that regularizations like the one proposed by the Spanish government can generate, in a context where many town halls are already "strained" in guaranteeing basic services to citizens. In any case, the mayor of Figueres addresses immigration within the framework of "coexistence", although he advocates for the expulsion of immigrants who commit crimes.
In this regard, in an interview with this newspaper, Masquef showed little receptiveness to a pact with Aliança after the elections: "To swallow this toad I would need a lot of bicarbonate".
El Periódico. Last week, also in El Periódico, Masquef showed little receptiveness to pact with Aliança after the elections: "To swallow this toad I would need a lot of bicarbonate".
