The mayor of El Port de la Selva defies Junts and gives "full support" to the councilman who chose the swastika
Lídia Ferrer assures that "the context must be understood" and that "it was not the Nazis' swastika"
BarcelonaPolitical earthquake in the Alt Empordà. The municipal government of Junts, led by Lídia Ferrer, has decided to keep Roger Pinart, the councillor from El Port de la Selva who chose the swastika over the espadrille, in one of the latest controversies related to Aliança Catalana. The leadership of Carles Puigdemont's party has demanded the immediate dismissal of Pinart –who is not a member of Junts but is part of the municipal executive–, but Ferrer has decided to give him "full support". In statements to ARA, Ferrer defends his "magnificent work as councillor for Security" at the city council, where he is second deputy mayor, and downplays his controversial tweet in favor of the swastika. The mayor admits the clash with the Junts leadership, but makes it clear that she will not dismiss him under any circumstances and that the party must respect her decision.
The controversy erupted when the former president of the Generalitat and leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, launched the question "The espadrille or the swastika. You choose" after, in the hemicycle of the Parliament, Junts, ERC, the CUP and Comuns showed the famous poster "Let's crush fascism", created in 1936 by the photographer and publicist Pere Català i Pic. "In this case, swastika", he wrote on X, responding to Junts' publication of an unequivocally anti-fascist nature: "Against hate, now and always. With President Companys, now and always".
Regarding Pinart's tweet, the mayor asserts that "the context must be understood" and that "it was not the Nazis' swastika", but the Buddhist one, as Pinart himself already justified following the controversy that his publication generated. In any case, Ferrer says that she does not have social media and that she does not care what might be said there. "The work done must be valued, not the garbage on social media", she snapped in an attempt to close a debate that has shaken the party in the Empordà town. Be that as it may, the mayor's decision leaves her in a complex situation with her sights set on the next municipal elections, given that the national leadership has demanded Pinart's dismissal.
The Junts post was a message aimed directly at Aliança Catalana, which a day earlier had supported Vox in an attempt to prevent them from being sanctioned for having called Lluís Companys a "murderer". The leader of Aliança, Sílvia Orriols, attributed it to an "error" by her spokesperson, Rosa Maria Soberana, although it was not the first time her party had appealed to freedom of expression to reject sanctions against deputies, including those from Vox. Far from reconsidering his position, Pinart kept responding to everyone who criticized his message with another poster showing an image of Pedro Sánchez lying on the ground, covered with what is inferred to be meant as a senyera (though it only has three red stripes) and a message: "Communism or Catalonia. You choose".
It was not a one-off outburst from Pinart, who is accustomed to making controversial posts on social media. Just a few days ago he called those camping for housing in Plaça Catalunya dirty, and this very Thursday, following the death of Maricarmen Abascal, a symbol of the fight against evictions, he wondered what she would do now with her puppets, attempting to liken her to the Spanish ventriloquist and comedian María del Carmen Martínez-Villaseñor Barrasa. The name Pinart, who already had his X account suspended in 2020 for insulting unaccompanied minors, became popular when he attacked former Ciutadans deputy Anna Grau for how she dressed. "When you no longer know if you are in the Parliament of Catalonia or at any club in La Jonquera", he wrote, attaching a photograph of Grau.