The former mayor of Perpignan who welcomed Puigdemont and is now surrendering to the far right

BarcelonaThis has been a week of campaigning across France for Sunday's second round of municipal elections, but not in Perpignan, where the first round saw far-right mayor Louis Aliot win a reelection with 50.61% of the vote. He swept the board after absorbing a segment of the traditional right wing, even with the public support of former mayor Jean-Marc Pujol, his long-time rival who lost in the 2020 elections and who had presided over the city council for eleven years. In February 2020, he received former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont with full honors before holding his massive rally of 100,000 people in Perpignan to show solidarity with the exiled leader, after his municipal government had already supported those facing repression on several occasions. Pujol is a conservative from the Republicans party, which governed in coalition with the Catalan nationalist party Unitat Catalana, but now considers Aliot to represent "the right."

his massive rally of 100,000 people in PerpignanTo show solidarity with the exile, after his municipal government had already supported those who had suffered reprisals on several occasions. Pujol is a conservative from the Republicans party who governed with the Catalan Unitat nationalists, but now considers Aliot to represent "the right."

"I will vote for the right-wing and popular coalition list led by Louis Aliot. [...] Today I am taking a stand in the interest of the people of Perpignan," Pujol announced. in ICI Roussillonwhere he added that he could have already made a pact with the far right in 2020. If with Pujol Catalan was made an official working language of the city council and solidarity was shown to those who suffered reprisals, with Aliot Perpiñán the coat of arms was changed to include the French flag, the motto "Perpignan, the Catalan" was changed to a generic "Perpignan, the radiant", weddings in Catalan were prohibited, and celebrations were sidelined. of Saint George.

Pujol is of Catalan and Valencian descent. Born in Algeria in 1949, he is also the successor of Joan Pau Alduy, the historic mayor who initiated the pact with Catalan nationalism and supported the independence of the Principality. Alduy, always opposed to the far right, said before the elections he said he regretted having named Pujol as his successor.

However, Pujol's support doesn't surprise some former collaborators: "It doesn't surprise me. Many people have gone with Aliot to increase their chances of being elected," Brice Lafontaine, who was deputy mayor under Pujol until his ouster in 2017, told ARA. A dozen of the former mayor's collaborators have switched to Aliot, including his wife, Fatima Dahine.

"He has no interest in Catalan identity, even though he's not against it," maintains Lafontaine, now an independent councilor for Unitat Catalana. He recalls that when he was part of the governing team, "he had a lot of trouble getting things done for the Catalan language": "We agreed on a new Bressola [immersion] school; he said yes, but there were always problems, and after six years it still hadn't been built," he says. Former councilor Jaume Pol comments that "during Pujol's last term," the "defense of Catalan identity" declined, which led to the split.

The reception for Puigdemont

And why did he receive Puigdemont? According to Lafontaine, "for image reasons": "Since he had people in the government who supported Puigdemont and there was a movement among the population, it was wise to have a Catalan star and receive him in this way." But also for the economic factor, "to bring more people to Perpignan for the businesses." Pujol was also present at the reception for former Speaker of the Parliament Carme Forcadell and received Quim Torra with honors when he was President of the Generalitat, even wearing the yellow ribbon. Now, the former mayor is concerned about security and has taken a hard line on immigration and against "the anti-Semitic far left" while the far right is reborn and he calls it the right wing.