Pujol rejects Junts' position in Ripoll and argues that "exclusion" should be maintained in the Catalan Alliance

BarcelonaExplicit rejection by the former president of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol of the decision of Junts to to distance oneself from the motion of censure against the mayor of Ripoll and leader of Aliança Catalana, Sílvia Orriols. In an interview in The Point Avui, Pujol distances himself from the Junts movement and argues that the "exclusion" of the extreme right must be maintained. These words from the former president come after the Junts leadership decided to stop negotiations to oust Orriols from the City Council, when they were practically closed. In fact, the Junts deny that they are applying a cordon sanitaire against Alianza in Ripoll, Just as they are not doing it against Josep Anglada in the Vic City Council..

In this sense, Pujol, who is not a member of Junts despite having defended that they should be voted for in the last elections, is concerned about the fact that Junts votes could go to the far right pro-independence movement: "In the next elections, one of the victims will be what had happened to Jun, which has now become Convergència, because someone from our world." Pujol has also admitted that he wanted to go to Ripoll a year ago to give a speech About the Catalan Alliance: "We have to tell these people that, with ethnicist policies and mentality, Catalonia would no longer exist today. Ethnicity would make us absolutely residual," he justified.

The former president of the Generalitat has pointed out that he has always had the issue of immigration "very much in mind." "I always had the idea of integration and of looking to get people incorporated. This required a social policy, a good welcome," he argued. And he added: "That required a linguistic, social, urban planning policy, etc., which was done little or a lot. What happens is that the flood is so great that it has overwhelmed us a lot, a lot," admits Jordi Pujol in reference to population growth.

"Those of us in the 0.0% will win the battle against those in the 3%, have no doubt about it," Sílvia Orriols responded to her via X. The mayor of Ripoll has shown on several occasions that her model of reception is completely opposite to that of Pujol. She believes that it should not be the Catalan institutions that are concerned with facilitating the integration of people of foreign origin, but rather that it should be the migrants who adapt to the norms of Catalan society. Aliança Catalana makes a complete amendment to the concept "everyone who lives and works in Catalonia is Catalan", typical of Pujolism.

Dialogue with Alliance

The Junts leadership is concerned about the growth of the Catalan Alliance in view of the upcoming municipal elections in 2027 and also the Catalan elections scheduled for 2028. For the moment, you already know that two of the former presidents of the Generalitat in his entourage have different opinions. Pujol believes that the cordon sanitaire should be maintained, but a few days ago Artur Mas was in favour of dialogue with the far-right separatists. "Juntos should be able to talk with the Catalan Alliance, but not create joint strategies," he said in an interview with the newspaperBarcelona newspaper. "It is as if any possible conversation with the CUP had been cut off at the time. There was always a channel of dialogue with the people of the anti-capitalist party when they are also very ultra, although left-wing, while Orriols' party is far-right. It is not the same, but we are talking about extremes," he argued.

For the moment, the leadership of Junts headed by Carles Puigdemont has chosen not to form a common front against Alianza in Ripoll and is beginning to question the cordon sanitaire against the extreme right in the Parliament. However, the secretary general, Jordi Turull, stressed in a recent interview on Rac1 that Junts will not reach government agreements with Aliança.