The tempting offer of Aliança Catalana to a councilor in the heart of Catalonia

BarcelonaTempting offer from Aliança Catalana in the heart of Catalonia. And doubly so. And rejected once again. Sílvia Orriols' party proposed to Manresa councilor, Sergi Perramon, to be the candidate in the capital of Bages. If he accepted the proposal, Perramon would also be the candidate for Barcelona in the next Catalan elections. The councilor, who had run for the Front Nacional de Catalunya (FNC), from which Orriols split, has once again rejected the offer, as he himself confirmed to ARA. "Jordi Coma called me on behalf of the president on the last day of the year and I rejected it," he says, referring to the party's advisor in Parliament. The leadership has declined to confirm the information, when questioned by this newspaper.

Aliança Catalana had already tried to sign up Manresa councilor, Sergi Perramon, to be the candidate for Barcelona in the last parliamentary elections, but the councilor, who has broken with the Front, refused the offer because he wanted to focus on municipal politics, now as an independent councilor. In those elections, Aliança also proposed to the only elected official of the Front remaining, the mayor of La Masó, Albert Pont, to be the candidate for Tarragona, with the aim of definitively ending their direct competition in the far-right independentist sector, but it was also unsuccessful.

Now, with an eye on the municipal elections, the Aliança leadership has knocked on Perramon's door again to be their mayoral candidate in Manresa. And it is that the capital of Bages is a tempting stronghold for this political space. In the last parliamentary elections, Manresa was the city of over 50,000 inhabitants where Aliança obtained the most support with 9.4% (added to Vox's votes, the far-right reached 16% of the electorate's support). In the municipal elections, the Front got two councilors and Vox, one, adding between them 12.6% of the votes. Aliança, however, is very clear that it will not present candidacies randomly if it does not have a solvent list behind it.

The reasons for Perramon not joining Aliança

Perramon, however, wants nothing to do with Aliança. In fact, he has created a new "center-right" platform, under the name Avenç Nacionalista, which he presented just before receiving this new offer from Aliança. His goal is to unite Junts and PDECat in a single candidacy, avoiding party names and without any party's brand. Aliança is not included in this equation, having remained on the sidelines of the talks to form a common front, which began two weeks ago and are progressing favorably.

He has also distanced himself from the Front, with whom he has had a tug-of-war over recent political events where the party has announced Perramon's presence, even though he has clarified that he will not attend.

But what separates Perramon from Aliança? The Manresa councilor points to several reasons. "It doesn't have a governing vocation, but rather an ideological agitation one," he states. And he marks distances with some of its postulates: "I am against the management of immigration and I am concerned about the radicalization of Islamism, but when you declare yourself Islamophobic (referring to Orriols) you put them all in the same bag". "We also have to talk about expats, South Americans or Spaniards, you can't point to origin," he adds.

However, the most significant reason for declining this new offer is Aliança's leadership's refusal to join a grand coalition, although he assures that local and regional leaders do not see it negatively. "They wanted to add me to grow their party. But I didn't get into municipal politics for that. There is no real desire to add, but rather to eliminate everything they don't control to grow themselves," he laments. In this sense, he denounces that Aliança's objective is to "replace projects that have already paved the way, and this does not respond to a collective project to change the city's direction, but rather to a strictly partisan approach".

Conversations with Junts

Given this scenario, Perramon has already met twice with Junts leader, Ramon Bacardit, after the local executive gave the green light to explore a joint candidacy for the municipal elections. The last meeting between the two leaders took place on Saturday. And this week, Perramon will also meet with Joan Vila, head of Impulsem, the PDECat's electoral brand, to try to bring it into the coalition, even though it is part of the ERC government, along with the PSC. All three forces together garnered 10 councilors in 2023 (Junts 6, PDEcat 2, and the Front 2) and were just three councilors short of an absolute majority.

Improving security, scrutinizing immigration, and promoting Catalan are the red lines that Avenç Nacionalista demands to present a unified list. Thus, the party advocates for introducing changes in the social aid system, strengthening the control of residency registration, increasing local police forces, or toughening municipal regulations on squatting. "We share the diagnosis of the city and they align with our concerns," says Perramon about the conversations with Junts, which has hardened its discourse in the capital of Bages.

Bacardit corroborates this, making it clear that issues such as "residency registration, security, and squatting must be politically addressed, and we fully agree". The head of the Junts list, who is confident of reaching an agreement as soon as possible, emphasizes the need for unity: "If we want to make a change, broad majorities are needed and fragmentation must be avoided to prevent a new ERC government".