The mayor of El Port de la Selva defies Junts and gives "total support" to the councilor who chose the swastika

BarcelonaPolitical earthquake in the Alt Empordà. The municipal government of Junts, led by Lídia Ferrer, has decided to keep Roger Pinart, the councillor of 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 "total support". In statements to ARA, Ferrer defends his "magnificent work as councillor for Security" at the city council, where he is the 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 in no case dismiss him 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 Parliament hemicycleJunts, 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 the 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 rather the Buddhist one, as Pinart himself justified following the controversy that his post generated. In any case, Ferrer says she does not have social media and does not care what might be said there. "The work done must be valued, not the trash on the networks," she retorted 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 an eye on the upcoming municipal elections, given that the national leadership has demanded Pinart's dismissal.

The publication by Junts was a message aimed directly at Aliança Catalana, which a day earlier had supported Vox in an attempt to prevent it from being sanctioned for having called Lluís Companys an "assassin". The leader of Aliança, Sílvia Orriols, attributed it to an "error" by her spokesperson, Rosa Maria Soberana, even though it was not the first time that her party had appealed to freedom of expression to reject sanctions against deputies, including those from Vox. Far from reconsidering his position, Pinart went on to respond to everyone who criticized his message with another poster showing an image of Pedro Sánchez lying on the ground and covered with what one can deduce is intended to look like a senyera (although it only has three red stripes) and a message: "Communism or Catalonia. You choose".

It was not an isolated outburst from Pinart, who is accustomed to making controversial posts on social media. Just a few days ago, he treated the housing activists camped out in Plaça Catalunya as dirty, and just this Thursday, after the death of Maricarmen Abascal, a symbol of the fight against evictions, he asked himself what she would do now with her dolls, attempting to liken her to the Spanish ventriloquist and comedian María del Carmen Martínez-Villaseñor Barrasa. The name of Pinart, who already had his X account suspended in 2020 for insulting unaccompanied minors, became popular a year later when he attacked former Ciutadans deputy Anna Grau for the way 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.