The PSC liquidates the local group of Ripoll

BarcelonaEnric Pérez and Anna Belén Avilés are no longer representatives of the PSC in the Ripoll City Council. Nor does the local socialist group exist anymore in the capital of Ripoll. The PSC Federation of the Girona regions agreed this Tuesday to liquidate the Ripoll executive and create a management committee. The leadership has made this decision after the local group closed ranks with the two councilors, who had warned that no one from the candidacy wanted to replace them because they disagree with the decision to expel them. Both resigned on Monday after the party censured them for abstaining from voting on the budgets and allowing Aliança Catalana to approve them. Their resignation has opened an unprecedented crisis in the PSC of Ripoll. The two councilors have left with reproaches to the PSC, and now the leadership will have to find people willing to take over the seat for the remaining year of the term.

"We want to state that the local group does not share this decision in any case; moreover, it is in absolute disagreement. There is no member of the list who has shown willingness to take over from our councilors. This is a decision made unilaterally by the national leadership of the PSC," say the two councilors in a joint statement. The Girona federation, on the other hand, emphasizes that it was the councilors who put their positions at the party's disposal and that endorsing the far-right has led to their departure. "There is no principle superior to avoiding pacts and any collaboration with the far-right. This fundamental criterion has determined that the Federation accepted the resignation of the two councilors. The red line of not making pacts with the far-right must be respected throughout Catalonia," the leadership says in a statement. "There is no margin whatsoever for collaboration with far-right forces [...]. It is a red line," corroborated, in turn, the spokesperson for the Government and Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, at a press conference after the executive council.

What is evident is that all bridges have been dynamited. In fact, the two councilors even deny that they met with the management on Monday to agree on their departure, despite the fact that the party insists that there was a telematic meeting with the Girona federation: "No meeting was held yesterday afternoon, nor, at the time we became aware of this decision through the media, had any formal communication been sent to us regarding it," say the two elected officials, who assure that they have taken a step aside out of "responsibility." In a statement sent this Tuesday, the party emphasized that its two representatives were ceasing "their institutional responsibilities" after "the meeting held yesterday afternoon between representatives of the national executive, the federation of the Girona regions, and the municipal group." Following questions from ARA, they clarified that there was no one from the national leadership.

During the budget debate, Pérez justified the abstention with the argument of avoiding a new vote of no confidence, which would have resulted in the umpteenth failure to unseat Sílvia Orriols from the mayorship due to the lack of agreement among the opposition forces. The day after the approval of the accounts, the Girona federation distanced itself from the decision made by the municipal group and made it clear that they had not endorsed it nor did they know anything about it. After being summoned for consultations, the two councilors admitted "the mistake" that the abstention in the City Council's budget debate represented and placed their positions at the party's disposal. It was, therefore, the chronicle of a death foretold. 

Two pillars of the PSC

In the statement, the PSC points out that "two party colleagues will assume the councilor positions", without specifying if they will be the next on the list, that is, numbers 3 and 4, even though the two councilors reiterate that the rest of the members of the candidacy do not intend to step forward. Be that as it may, the socialists of Ripoll thus lose two of their stalwarts. In fact, Pérez intended to run as a candidate again. He would have been the only one of Sílvia Orriols' rivals to repeat, as the mayoral candidates for Junts, ERC, and the CUP will be new and some of the former ones have been withdrawing during the term.

Candidate in the last elections, Pérez also was in 2007, at only 27 years old, and in 2011, and has been a councilor for fifteen years, as well as a regional president for four years. His extensive experience has led the Minister of Territory, the also Gerona-born Sílvia Paneque, whom he knows well and whose worth he is aware of, to hire him as an institutional action advisor, a position he has also left, as reported in the statement.

In any case, his departure will mean that the PSC will have to look for a new candidate, with less than a year to go until the elections. Pérez's fellow party member was also not new to politics. Anna Belén Avilés was the socialists' head of list and spokesperson in the City Council both in 2015 and 2019 and was one of the most well-known faces of socialism in the region, beyond Pérez. The PSC will have to fill the vacancies now and also put together a new list against the clock for next year.

This was emphasized by Orriols, who was quick to react to the PSC's decision: "In the crusade against Aliança Catalana, the PSC has decided to decapitate even its own," he said. "Perhaps these dismissals interest you to maintain the narrative in the Parliament, but in Ripoll you have made a fool of yourselves and I will be interested to see how you manage to put together a list in the next municipal elections," he added in a message on the social network X. Subsequently, Orriols also attributed the PSC's decision to dismiss the two councilors "for a simple abstention" to the fear of the party leader and president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, of Aliança's growth.