The Aliança candidate in Vic promoted "migration with a gender perspective" with thousands of euros

BarcelonaThe brand-new mayoral candidate for Aliança Catalana in Vic, Elisenda Carrera, was until May the Councillor for International Cooperation as a representative of Ara Vic (PDeCat) in a municipal coalition government led by Junts. Rumors of her ties to the far-right Aliança, which ARA already reported had been in contact with her, precipitated her resignation from the local executive to become a non-attached councillor, but now she has taken the definitive step to lead the Vic candidacy. The fact is that the work she carried out as a councillor clashes head-on with the party's discourse against international cooperation. What does the party leader, Sílvia Orriols, think about the subsidies for "migration and climate emergency with a gender perspective" that Carrera's department granted?

According to public data from the City Council consulted by ARA, in the two fiscal years of 2024 and 2025, the international cooperation department accounted for 92,553 euros in total in subsidies to entities, of which 60,000 euros went exclusively abroad, to which must be added 10,400 that are split between Catalonia and abroad with countries like Nepal and The Gambia, according to City Council data. Public administrations promote policies for international cooperation to reduce global inequalities, but the fact is that Orriols has led a crusade against foreign aid.

"What they call cooperation funds, do you know what they really are? A bailout plan for friendly NGOs," she has insisted in various interventions, in which she has highlighted "the duty" to "govern for Catalan citizens and not for those in Guatemala and Mozambique." At the same time, she has lamented that the various governments of the Generalitat "have poured huge resources into causes that had no impact or significance for Catalans," that is, "they have taken part of the money they collect to give away" to foreign organizations under the framework of international cooperation." Or, which is the same thing, in her opinion, "public money thrown into the pond in the eagerness to implement their woke policies."

Subsidies

Regarding subsidies, in the field of international cooperation that Carrera led, last year 8,000 euros were granted to the Red Cross in Osona for a project of "education for global citizenship" in Vic to promote "human rights in motion" by addressing the "migration and climate emergency with a gender perspective"; but also 8,000 euros to Agermanament sense Fronteres for the "improvement of productivity with a machinery park for women farmers"; and 7,500 euros to the Association for Development Cooperation Kakolum to promote "renewable energy for the Kabar School", in Senegal. There are others such as 7,993 euros granted in 2024 for "the training of women in associations as an instrument of empowerment in Cameroon" or 1,860 euros to build sanitary facilities in India. In direct municipal cooperation, the Vic City Council, in collaboration with the Senegalese municipality of Ziguinchor, promoted in 2024 the "improvement of municipal waste management" or "support" for female vocational training. The MANS Festival for Global Justice is another of the international cooperation projects that exist with the desire to raise awareness.

As a councilor, Carrera traveled in March 2024 to the Moroccan city of Nador within the framework of the management of a cooperation and professional exchange agreement between the Baraka Center, the University of Vic, the Casal Claret, and the Vic City Council. Baraka is "a training, education, and insertion center for young people in Nador in poverty, but which treats the most vulnerable women with special attention," enhancing their training. She was received by "the delegation of the Ministry of Solidarity" and advocated for the "need to foster a type of cross-cutting cooperation" with an "enriching exchange." In the photograph she published – at the moment the Instagram account is in private mode – she is without problems with women wearing the Islamic veil, which Orriols criticizes harshly, calling it a "rag." At the same time, four teachers from Nador, from the Baraka Center, were received at the Vic City Council in November 2023.