Juntos does not apply a sanitary cordon to Josep Anglada either

BarcelonaIn Vic, the far right does not govern, but it has representation in the council. Josep Anglada returned to the town hall in the 2023 elections and has managed to gain political relevance after moderating his tone this term (despite some public confrontation with the CUP). To the point that his two votes are decisive for Junts, which holds the mayor's office, to win votes. The mayor, Albert Castells, shuns sanitary cordons and claims to be able to negotiate and reach agreements with everyone. "It doesn't work," he says. "As mayor, I demand that the same thing I do in Vic be done in the Parliament, confront ideas and go issue by issue and not act as a block against political parties," he explains in conversation with the ARA. "The drift of Europe and the world towards the far right worries us, but we believe that the way to confront it is with policies" to solve the "real problems": "[illegal] occupation, civility, security, housing" and also the "demographic challenge."

"Anglada has never been so decisive," denounce the progressive groups, who regret the "harmony" he has with Junts and consider Anglada "the shadow partner of the municipal government." But the mayor, Albert Castells, denies that Anglada is a preferred partner and dismisses the accusation as a "self-serving narrative." The first group he always calls is that of the leader of the opposition, ERC, he points out. In Castells' opinion, making "sanitary cordons and restricting democratic rights fuels the fact that citizens have more disaffection and vote for more radicalized formations." He justifies the agreements with SOMI - Anglada's new party - because it is "one more group" and emphasizes that it intends to promote "maximum consensus policies." Until now, agreements have been made with all the groups: the PSC has voted on the first two budgets and also the municipal portfolio, and the commons have also voted on this year's, as has SOMI. In any case, the left-wing opposition regrets that the mayor is increasingly "leaning" towards SOMI, while Castells complains that he has not always had the "loyalty" of the left-wing councillors.

"We are in the middle, we are decisive," says Anglada, who emphasises that he has "a very good understanding with the government team" and that the government "has relied on SOMI's vote" in many proposals. He comments that he works "on many things with the government team" and that "the majority" of his motions are approved and, in fact, he has appeared at government events, even presenting some works, which has raised a storm. The mayor justifies this: "We incorporate, execute and echo the proposals of all the groups that benefit Vic." Anglada assures that he continues to think the same about immigrants, and attributes their "normalisation" to "shouting less" and presenting "proposals for the benefit of the community." He says that they have never done a cordon sanitaire, but now there is "harmony" with the government.

What does Anglada think about immigrants? Basically that "we must expel all illegal immigrants", as he would say repeatedly when he was the leader of Plataforma per Catalunya or that "the brave ones will be the ones to expel immigrants from our country", as he said in 2010 at an event in Madrid where he ended up exclaiming that "there is no room for them here anymore". Anglada began his political career at nineteen in Fuerza Nueva, the Francoist party with which he organised trips to the Valley of the Fallen. He was also a candidate for Blas Piñar's National Front and founded Plataforma per Catalunya in 2001 –from Plataforma Vigatana–, the far-right party with which he entered the Vic City Council in 2003 and which ended up expelling him in 2019.

UP Carla Dinarès, whom he insulted through social networks for her physique and also called "sick". He ended up apologizing to her. It has not been the only time when he has lost his temper in his political activity and, in fact, he was sentenced to Two years in prison for threatening a minor –Arran activist– on social media.

Criticism from the opposition

ERC councillor Maria Balasch, who says that she has always shown her support to Castells – they had even offered to join the government – regrets Anglada's "crutch". But ERC does not strictly follow the same line as in the Parliament: "If we do not agree we vote against and if his proposal is positive we abstain, but we are never in favour." They abstain to "avoid victimisation" in "positive" matters. Dinarès, the CUP councillor, explains that they do apply the cordon: they never question him, they reject everything and refute his speech when it suits them without addressing him. For his part, PSC councillor Josep Pou denounces Anglada's role and now, having reflected after the episode of insults, he will choose to vote No to everything he proposes – refuting the arguments – just as they do in the Parliament to avoid "giving him more wings" than what they believe the mayor does, after having previously alternated it with abstentions and some affirmative votes depending on the content to avoid "victimization". The councilor of the commons Arnau Martí denounces the "programmatic agreements" of Junts amb Anglada and points out that the mayors "Villa de Abadal and Erra were more clear against the agreements with the extreme right".