The PSC councilors of Ripoll resign amid reproaches to the party and warn that no one wants to replace them

BarcelonaEnrique Pérez and Ana Belén Avilés are no longer representatives of the PSC in the Ripoll City Council. The two councilors resigned on Monday after the party censured them for abstaining in the budget vote and allowing Aliança Catalana to approve them. Their resignation, however, has opened an unprecedented crisis in the PSC of Ripoll. The two councilors are leaving amid reproaches to the leadership and warn that no one from the candidacy wants to replace them because they do not agree with the decision to expel them.

"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 any willingness to take over from our councilors. This is a decision adopted unilaterally by the national leadership of the Partit Socialista de Catalunya," say the two former councilors in a joint statement.

The two councilors even deny that they met with the leadership on Monday to agree on their departure, despite the party insisting 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 former elected officials, who assure that they have stepped 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 no one from the national leadership was present.

During the budget plenary session, Pérez justified the abstention with the argument of avoiding a new vote of confidence, which would have resulted in the umpteenth failure to oust Sílvia Orriols from the mayoralty due to the lack of agreement among opposition forces. The day after the accounts were approved, 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 summoning them for consultations, the two councilors admitted "the error" that the abstention in the City Council's budget plenary session represented and placed their positions at the party's disposal. It was, therefore, the chronicle of a death foretold. 

In the statement, the PSC points out that "two party colleagues will assume the councilor positions," without specifying whether they will be the next on the list, i.e., numbers 3 and 4, even though the two former councilors warn that the rest of the candidacy members do not intend to take the step. The fact is that the Ripoll socialists thus lose two of their mainstays. In fact, Pérez intended to repeat as a candidate. 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 retiring 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, in addition to regional president for four years. His extensive experience has led the Minister of Territory, the also Gerundense Sílvia Paneque, whom he knows well and knows her worth, 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 party colleague was also not new to politics. Anna Belén Avilés was the leader and spokesperson for the socialists in the City Council in both 2015 and 2019 and was one of the most well-known faces of socialism in the region, beyond Pérez. The resignation of the two socialist councilors leaves the municipal executive shaken, and even more so if the predictions of the two former councilors come true, and it will have to configure 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 form a list in the next municipal elections," he added in a message on social network X. Later, 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 the growth of Aliança.