The problem hidden by Silvia Orriols' hyperleadership

BarcelonaHyper-leadership is a widespread characteristic in newly formed political parties. Podemos experienced this firsthand with Pablo Iglesias, Ciudadanos with Albert Rivera, Vox with Santiago Abascal –although its founders were different–, Junts with Carles Puigdemont, and now Aliança Catalana with Sílvia Orriols. It's true that more established parties aren't immune either, and there are countless examples, though these tend to be tempered by internal changes over time. Orriols' public exposure helps her party grow, as all the polls confirm. Behind closed doors, hyper-leadership becomes more difficult to manage, even in the case of Aliança, according to some within the party. This hyper-leadership is put to the test every week in the Catalan Parliament, where Orriols' interventions in plenary sessions are the main message that Aliança uses in all its communications. But Orriols isn't alone in the room. A few weeks ago, Aliança's communications secretary, Lluís Areny, and Rosa Maria Soberana, the deputy who serves alongside Orriols in the Catalan Parliament, refused to take questions at a press conference. In this regard, some within the party suggest that only Orriols could provide certain answers. Since then, they haven't even held their usual weekly press conference in the Catalan Parliament. A review of the party's social media reveals that most of the videos Aliança posts on its profiles are of Orriols' speeches in Parliament. The official accounts even repost speeches from months ago, highlighting some of the party's key issues, notes political communications consultant Xavier Tomàs. This is "unthinkable in any other party" and serves to further "reinforce" the hyper-leadership, he adds.

Deputy Soberana has a minimal presence on social media, but also in the Catalan Parliament. On the one hand, Orriols reserves for himself the most important interventions and those that directly confront his adversaries. On the other hand, although Soberana attends the party's press conferences in Parliament, the number two of Aliança in the chamber plays a very secondary role.

The person in charge of presenting most of the issues and answering questions from the media is Lluís Areny, the party's communications secretary, who is one of the six people who make up the party's national governing committee and also part of Aliança's inner circle. That Areny, and not Soberana, takes center stage at these press conferences is anomalous compared to other parties and the usual practice of appearances in the Parliament's press room, where it is the deputies who answer the questions posed by the press. Furthermore, these press conferences are not usually attended by political figures from the party or the national structure beyond the person speaking and the press officers, who remain far from the microphones.

Message Control

As a result of this situation, sources within Aliança suggest that the party has a problem, at least in the Catalan Parliament, with Orriols's hyper-leadership. Within the party, they claim, there are few members prepared to respond to the press. Furthermore, Orriols, who is also the mayor of Ripoll and is considered the only one best suited to respond, must combine her municipal duties with her work in the Catalan Parliament, which means she rarely appears in Barcelona. In a party with a clearly hierarchical structure, everything contributes to the perpetuation of Orriols's omnipresence. This dynamic, within the party leadership, allows her to "control the message" and avoid a "loss of communicative control with journalists," notes consultant Tomàs. This context explains some of the recent incidents in the Parliament's press room. In mid-November, a journalist asked Soberana and Areny: "Do you have any opinion on what came out of yesterday's meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, with this dispute over a single or multilateral financing system on the table?" Areny replied: "Not especially. The money should be for the Catalans. All the financing." "We don't believe that he has to come from Spain."

Dodging media questions

A week later, Soberana and Areny refused to answer questions from the media at a press conference in the Catalan Parliament, a format in which taking questions is mandatory. After making a statement at the podium in the press room about current political affairs, Areny declared, "We will not be making any further comments." Immediately afterward, both left the room. This situation prompted the Association of Parliamentary Journalists of Catalonia, the Col·lectiu Ciutadella, to file a formal complaint with Aliança to prevent a similar situation from recurring. So far, they have not held any further press conferences in Parliament, although they did send a press release—signed from Ripoll—to address the situation regarding African swine fever.