Santiago Espot promotes a candidacy in Barcelona outside of Aliança Catalana

BarcelonaBusinessman and politician Santiago Espot has been campaigning in Barcelona for months. He records videos and posts them on social media criticizing certain city council measures or denouncing the "degradation" of the Catalan capital. A tireless presence online, where he has thousands of followers, he attacks immigration policies, but also expats, whom he invites to return to their countries if they don't want to integrate into Catalonia. A staunch Catalan separatist, Espot was the instigator of the booing of the Spanish national anthem at the 2015 Copa del Rey final, which landed him in the National Court for insulting Spanish symbols. With this track record, his name had been mentioned as a possible candidate for Aliança Catalana in the municipal elections. However, Espot will not be joining Sílvia Orriols' party's Barcelona list. According to information obtained by ARA, he has decided to set up an independent platform that has the support of the National Front of Catalonia (FNC), the formation from which Aliança was born as a result of a split, which he himself wants to lead.

The electoral platform, called Barcelona2027, already has a website and a list of supporters. Among the one hundred people who support this list, a tribute to the Consell de Cent (Council of One Hundred), is the former mayor of Arenys de Munt, the former CUP member Josep Manel Ximenis. "Barcelona is in terrible decline because of the pro-Spanish unity," denounces the driving force behind the first sovereignty referendum, who had previously been linked to the CUP. Other signatories include the writer and political scientist Ramon Cotarelo, the lawyer Pepe Fajula, the actor Sergi Mateu, the journalist Frederic Porta, and the former president of the CADCI (Center for Documentary and Information Sciences), Josep Maria Andreu.

In an interview with ARA, the businessman ruled out joining an Aliança list: "Neither I nor any of the promoters are members of Aliança, and therefore, the candidacy will be independent of Aliança." He also maintained that "Aliança without Orriols is nothing" and that in "municipal elections, the person is more important than the brand." He did leave open the possibility of running under the Front umbrella to avoid having to collect the necessary endorsements required by running with a citizens' group (a party must collect around 1,200 signatures, while a citizens' group requires 8,000), but he insisted that this had not yet been discussed.

Espot explains that the candidacy's objective is "to restore Catalan identity and security to Barcelona, ​​as well as to change a perverse economic model based on mass tourism and cheap labor that does nothing but drive Barcelonans out of the city." In one of his latest social media posts, the promoter of the Barcelona list accused 24-hour supermarkets, mobile phone shops, and hair salons run by immigrants of being "laundering money for criminal networks."

This will not be Espot's first time running for office in Barcelona. In the 2011 elections, the businessman led the list for Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència (SI), which garnered 6,823 votes (1.13%) but failed to win any seats on the city council. This followed his party, Catalunya Acció, joining the Força Catalunya electoral alliance in 2010, which, through its electoral platform Força Catalunya, had decided to support the SI list headed by Joan Laporta and which secured four seats in the Catalan Parliament. The FNC had planned to contest the elections again in the Catalan capital, where it failed to reach even a thousand votes (0.13%) in the last election, but the formation of this independent platform has led them to abandon their plans to run independently.