First territorial crisis in Aliança Catalana

BarcelonaIn recent weeks, the Catalan Alliance has been forming its regional executive committees. The goal is to organize itself throughout the territory with an eye toward the upcoming municipal elections. The xenophobic party already has around twenty committees, most of them in the Barcelona district (12), but it also has four in Girona and Tarragona. In Lleida, however, it only has two: in Segrià and Pla d'Urgell. It is precisely in this district that the far-right party's first territorial crisis has erupted.

The first members of the Catalan Alliance in the Pyrenees sought to establish a leadership and called a congress on December 22 in Seu d'Urgell, which never took place. The problem is that they wanted to form a veguería (a village council) when the party's statutes only provide for organization by district. The standoff between the leadership and this core group ended with disciplinary proceedings being opened against two of its leaders, who were expelled (although one resigned earlier) for having called the congress without leadership authorization. Two other militants also ended up leaving, and a couple of sympathizers who were part of the driving force have also packed their bags.

"The Pyrenees have a small population, and we don't have enough militants in the regions to create a team in each of them," explains Àngel Font, one of the two leaders who were disciplined. He asserts that a section of the party initially supported them and encouraged them to move forward with Jordi Aragonès at the helm, but then "went into hiding" when the opposing sector, led by Oriol Gès, imposed its views. "We've found ourselves in the middle of an internal struggle within the leadership," adds Font, who was supposed to be the organization secretary. It was of no use following "Aragonès's instructions," according to Font, by converting the congress of the Veguería into that of the regional grouping of the two Pallars, Alta Ribagorça, Vall d'Aran, and Alt Urgell counties, and by committing to electing regional committees whenever possible.

The person who was supposed to be the president of the Catalan Alliance in the Pyrenees is the other person facing disciplinary action. This is Ramon Porta, a Junts councilor in Tírvia, who has been denied the party's dues receipt without being informed that he had been expelled. "We are the ideologists of the Catalan Alliance in the Pyrenees, but the ones in charge are Oriol Gès and company," the councilor laments about the party's organizational secretary. He also denounces the "incongruity" of prohibiting them from setting up a Pyrenees nucleus while there are two in Baix Llobregat.

The party leadership downplays the number of losses and claims that up to six new members have joined in recent weeks. However, they do not dare to predict when they might hold a congress. "Now the priority is Urgell and then Noguera," they maintain. The fact is that the account that this nucleus had on X has come under the control of the leadership and has been inoperative since its departure, and the former members have created a new one.

"Impose the Orriols agenda"

Beyond how to organize the party in the Pyrenees, the founding core shows ideological divergences with the leadership. "Alliance is against Islam, but for us this is not the main issue. Silvia Orriols only talks about immigration, she is single-minded, and wants to apply the template she uses in Ripoll everywhere, when here in the Pyrenees we have other problems because we haven't had significant population growth," Font criticizes. In this sense, he questions the lack of discussion about the primary sector such as livestock and agriculture, which are key in these regions. "If we want to be independent, food self-sufficiency is paramount," emphasizes Font, who doesn't understand why the Lleida representatives of Aliança, first Abad and then Rosa Maria Soberana, haven't come to see them all this time to learn about the problems in the region.