Screaming at Sílvia Orriols at the Patum of Berga
The leader of Aliança Catalana had been invited to the City Hall balcony by the councilwoman who has joined her party and who will be the mayoral candidate
Barcelona"We have been working for many, many years for La Patum to be a success, and above all an example of harmony, of sharing, of friendship and of joy, and the City Council's plea is that this continues to be so." In this way, the mayor of Berga, Ivan Sànchez, called on Wednesday to maintain the complicity of recent years at the start of the festival. This festive atmosphere has been soured this Thursday, just one day later, by the presence of Sílvia Orriols on the balcony of the City Council. The president of Aliança Catalana was met with an unprecedented booing at the first jump of the full Patum, in which the 'guita' carried the anti-fascist flag. Hundreds of people, some with whistles, shouted at the also mayor of Ripoll with cries against fascism and racism such as "Out with fascists from La Patum".
The leader of Aliança arrived in the evening in the Berguedà capital without even voting her amendment in its entirety to the accompanying law of the budgets in Parliament – she voted on the bill for the accounts in the morning, but was absent from the plenary session in the afternoon – on the same day she boasted of working more than some deputies. In Berga, Judit Vinyes was waiting for her, the independent councilwoman who has joined her party and who will be the candidate in the municipal elections, who had invited her to the balcony of the City Hall. Before she entered the reserved seat of authorities, part of the public had already insulted her and chanted anti-fascist slogans, but it was when she sat down that the shouting became generalized to show their discontent at her presence. It was no use that some party militants from Berga and others from outside were in the square. In fact, even part of the square demanded that the festival not start until she left, but the mayor gave the order for it to begin.
Orriols had already heated the atmosphere when she announced her presence at the consistory. In a post on X, accompanied by a photograph of a leap of plenary sessions, the Islamophobic leader announced that she would be present at the festival with the aim of "transmitting to the people of Berguedà that, after years of dirt, darkness and degradation, there is hope". And she exemplified this hope in Vinyes. It was, therefore, a dart against the CUP, which has held the mayoralty for three consecutive terms.
her and many of the nucleus's driving forces in Berga would leaveThe one who was postulating to be Aliança's candidate in Berga, Anna de Haro, who is no longer part of the party after the bet on Vinyes that caused her and many of the initiators of the Berga chapter to leave, urged Orriols to stop provoking. "La Patum is starting and some of you are more concerned with generating headlines, controversies, and tension than with respecting a festival that belongs to everyone. Between provocative announcements, calculated messages, and a permanent narrative of confrontation, the feeling is that some of you need things to happen to continue feeding your discourse," she denounced.
And she attributed it to electoralism: "If you truly love Berga and La Patum, stop turning it into a campaign and conflict stage. People want to enjoy the festival, not be part of any provocation strategy or victimhood operation. It's shameful to see how any situation is tried to be instrumentalized to obtain political gains."
Other whistles at politicians
He is not the first politician to have been booed. The last one to be shouted at was the current president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa. Two years ago, on May 30, 2024, shortly after the elections he had won, the PSC leader, who was not yet head of the executive, was one of the authorities invited to the Patum de lluïment. And when he entered the balcony, part of the audience received him with a great booing, whistles and shouts of "independence". Artur Mas was also booed when he was president of the Generalitat. It was in 2012. Upon his arrival at Plaça de Sant Pere, some of the attendees who filled it whistled at him in a context of major cuts by the Generalitat after the 2008 crisis and strong social protests. Be that as it may, some attendees also applauded him and there was a division of opinions.
