Why has Junts' leadership deactivated the motion of censure in Ripoll?

Barcelona"Ripoll is Ripoll and they are addressing the issue from Ripoll. All due respect [...]. Ripoll's issues must be decided in Ripoll. When there is news, Junts Ripoll will announce it." This was how the secretary general of the councillors, Jordi Turull, responded to journalists on Monday at a press conference in Barcelona about the negotiations for the motion of censure to oust Sílvia Orriols from the mayor's office. Now, one thing is what was said publicly and another is what had been brewing in the party for weeks: despite the fact that Ripoll councillors were negotiating with Esquerra and the PSC the possibility of a pact to remove the far right from the government, the "general" opinion of the national executive of Junts was against ousting Orrio. Including former president Carles Puigdemont, who has been involved in the conversations between the national leadership and Junts Ripoll, which on Monday night ended up adopting Barcelona's criteria. "We have reached the decision together," one of the sources consulted reaffirms, without hiding that it has been "difficult."

With what arguments does Junts deactivate the motion? First, because they understood that they would make Silvia Orriols a "victim"; and second, because then she would be "freed" from the duties of mayor to focus on the Parliament and to walk around Catalonia campaigning at a national level. Only two years away from the municipal elections of 2027 and on the rise in all the polls. "We have always believed that it was a trap," say sources at a national level, who also admit that this majority criterion in the executive clashed with their local councilors, who considered that the motion of censure should be negotiated due to the poor management that Orriols was doing in the city.

The debate in the direction of Junts

According to several sources consulted, when the possibility of negotiating a motion of censure was opened, Following Orriols' failure to approve the budgets in Ripoll, The national leadership of Junts analysed the possibility of ousting the mayor. Puigdemont did not explicitly take a stand at that meeting, but in other forums he did state that he was inclined to leave things as they were. The party's general secretary, Jordi Turull, and the vice president, Toni Castellà – that is, the top leaders of the party – also remained aligned, as did the deputy Agustí Colomines, with a direct connection to Puigdemont. David Saldoni, who is in charge of the local world, asked that, if the motion was stopped, peace should be signed with the Junts councillors in Ripoll.

With this argument, that of making a decision in support of the local world, several sources from the national leadership of Junts justify the start of talks with ERC, PSC and CUP to explore the pact. A strategy that other sources challenge due to the fact that it has given wings to a possibility that was not seen at the outset. In fact, on Monday night municipal sources spoke of the pact as if it were "on the table": "The question on the table is when it will be made public," they said, adding that a government was being explored. three-way with Esquerra and the PSC.

The decision

Although a meeting between the different parties had been called for Monday night in Ripoll to continue advancing the negotiations, it was suspended because the councillors had another appointment. They were called to a meeting with the national leadership, in which, according to the sources consulted, Puigdemont himself, Turull, Saldoni and also the secretary of organisation, Judith Toronjo, participated. Also, the deputies Salvador Vergés and Jordi Munell, former mayor of Ripoll. It is in this meeting where the criteria of Barcelona ends up prevailing over that of the people of Ripoll, who in the end also expressed doubts. Where, therefore, the "consensual and aligned" decision is taken to which Turull and the councillors Montsina Llimós, Maria Soldevila and Ferran Raigon referred on Tuesday in the appearance in Ripoll. At that time, according to the sources consulted, the PSC had already been accepting to enter the municipal government for two weeks and it was assumed that the mayor would be Maria Soldevila (Juntos) with the question of whether the mandate would be shared with Esquerra. In fact, last Thursday the Ripollese councillors had made the first proposal for the distribution of portfolios.

Junqueras' call to Puigdemont

The rest of the negotiators of the motion of censure, Junts' turnaround reached them this Tuesday morning. To the point that there is a call between the president of Esquerra, Oriol Junqueras, and Puigdemont to try to convince him to change his mind. A conversation that has been revealed by the general secretary of the republicans, Elisenda Alamany, assuring that the former president has shielded himself behind an internal survey. According to Nació Digital and confirmed by ARA, in the survey there was no clear support from the people of Ripollet to oust Orriols. There were also municipal surveys that gave greater voting intention to Aliança Catalana, bordering on an absolute majority, say some sources. Data that, from the national leadership, they have also used to convince their councillors to say No finally in the motion of censure.