The PSC is left without mayors in Ripoll

BarcelonaThe PSC has had two mayors in Ripoll since the recovery of democratic municipalities. Pere Jordi Piella was the first mayor after Franco and held the position from 1979 to 1993. Jaume Camps took over from 1993 to 1995. Neither of them, however, is currently a member of the PSC. The first left in 2017, not because of the Procés, but in disagreement with the PSOE's decision to abstain to allow Mariano Rajoy to be invested as president in 2016. The second has now resigned after the forced departure of the two socialist councilors who also abstained, but in this case so that the mayoress, Sílvia Orriols, could approve the budgets and not have to revive a vote of confidence doomed to failure.

abstained, but in this case because the mayoress, Sílvia Orriols, could approve the budgets and not have to revive a vote of confidence doomed to failure.

In conversation with ARA, Camps confirms that he has left the party where he had been a member for forty years and which he represented for 26 years in the City Council in two periods, from 1983 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2013. The former mayor defends the actions of the two councilors, Enric Pérez and Anna-Belén Avilés, who remain members, and criticizes the party leadership: "They wanted to avoid the media circus of a year ago and Aliança playing the victim again because the budgets would have been approved anyway, but the leadership has not respected municipal autonomy and has treated Ripoll as if it were a branch of Baix Llobregat." In this regard, he laments that after "so many years of fighting in no man's land to keep the PSC's banner flying firm", especially during pujolism, the Procés, or with the application of Article 155, that "everything ends up as it has ended is very sad." And furthermore, he emphasizes, when the cordon sanitaire against the far-right party has not worked: "Junts has broken it twice by backing down at the last moment for Orriols to reach and maintain the mayorship."

That the other members of the candidacy have not wanted to replace the two councilors demonstrates, in their opinion, that they also disagree with the decision of the leadership: "Joining a list is normally an adherence to the candidate and here in Ripoll it has been demonstrated. The PSC has burned the territory and now let's see if they find people to make a list". What the leadership has not yet found are the replacements for the two councilors, as admitted by sources from the PSC federation in the Girona regions, who confirm contacts with people from Ripoll, but also from the region. Be that as it may, today in the plenary session the two seats that the socialist representatives occupied until now will be empty. "It is an image to remember," exclaims Camps. And he concludes: "The councilor is appointed by the people, not by the first secretary of a party".

During the plenary session in which the resignation of the two socialist councilors was formalized, Orriols branded as "disgusting" that the PSC wants to "impose on the people of Ripoll the presence of two strangers" in the City Council. Orriols thanked them for "loyalty to Ripoll above party lines" and lamented the "disproportionate" reaction of the party against them "just for thinking locally." She also expressed happiness "as an independentist" for having "dismantled" the PSC in Ripoll "even if it was unintentionally" while looking at the two empty socialist seats. "The measures of the PSC leadership are disproportionate, the fruit of the irascibility and fear generated by Alianza Catalana, rather than a reasoned strategy," stated Orriols, for whom "it has been amply proven that they couldn't care less about the day-to-day lives of the people of Ripoll." From ERC, Chantal Pérez "categorically" condemned the way the resignation of the two socialist councilors occurred, a way she considered "unjust, authoritarian, and disproportionate." For his part, Joaquim Colomer, from the independent group Som Ripoll, which supported the accounts, highlighted that, as a group not affiliated with any national party, "we do not understand these constant interferences from major parties that make decisions instead of the councilors."