Juntos will withdraw from the motion of censure and Sílvia Orriols will continue to be the mayor of Ripoll

RipollThere will be no vote of no confidence in Ripoll. Juntos has ended up being eliminated and the Aliança Catalana mayor will continue in office and, in addition, with the budgets approved from Monday. This was explained by the formation chaired by Carles Puigdemont in a joint statement between the national leadership and that of the party in Ripoll, and in the afternoon they made their voice heard. "We want to defeat hate speech at the polls," said the general secretary of the council, Jordi Turull, pointing towards 2027. Why, then, have they been negotiating with the opposition for almost a month? Juntos has not finished clarifying it, but councillor Ferran Raigon has stressed that there have been no substantial differences with ERC, the PSC and the CUP, with whom they have negotiated specific areas of government. However, he described the executive that would have resulted as a "Frankenstein government". Silvia Orriols was seen in the afternoon at the town hall, laughing and celebrating with the rest of the Aliança councillors the conclusion of the farce that she herself provoked a month ago when she submitted to – and lost – the vote of confidence.

The Junts statement in the morning had already listed the three main reasons that, according to them, made a motion of censure "unviable". "Firstly, it is not viable to replace a minority government with another minority government, because there is a risk that the citizens will believe that it is a simple change of seats." Secondly, a motion of censure "would increase the risk that the mayor will increase her victimhood," they add. And they conclude that, thirdly, "the alternative that emerges must be strong, with great popular support and must therefore be the result of the majority will of the people of Ripollet."

As happened after the municipal elections of 2023, the negotiations to close the move to Aliança have derailed at the last moment. The decision of Junts was finally taken on Monday night in a meeting in Barcelona between the national leadership of the party and the leaders of Ripollet. And, during the morning, it was communicated to the rest of the negotiators. ERC, the CUP and the Comuns have regretted the interference of the national leadership of Junts even before the statement of the councilors was made public at 2 p.m. The Ripoll councilors of Junts have denied that the decision was taken alone by the national executive of the party and have argued that it was taken "jointly." At the afternoon press conference, next to Turull was Ferran Raigon, while the two councilors who led the negotiations, Montsina Llimós and Maria Soldevila, played a secondary role. If there is any resignation from now on, they explained, it will not be directly related to the failure of the motion of censure.

Before going to the town hall, Orriols herself had already reacted to the news through a post on X: "The summary of the day is that there has been a struggle... and Ripoll has won," she said. The mayor and member of Parliament for the Catalan Alliance had denounced the attempted "coup d'état" between the opposition parties to oust her and had rejected the legitimacy of this move, provided for in the law.

From "good harmony" to an "unfeasible" motion

The string of arguments that Juntos has put forward this Tuesday contrast with the feelings and comments about the motion of censure that, during all these weeks of negotiations, the councillors of the local delegation have transmitted. "We will not make any public declaration until we have closed the negotiation," the spokesperson for the council, Maria Soldevila, has repeated over and over again in recent weeks, assuming that the final objective was to reach an agreement, and not to back out of the motion at the last minute. Even this Monday, when everything seemed to be on track, the municipal group recognised that the official announcement of the agreement was expected "Wednesday or Thursday".

In addition, since the day after Silvia Orriols' vote of confidence, at the end of January, the councillors of Ripoll, like the rest of the opposition groups, have recognised the "good harmony" and the "good predisposition" to reach a final understanding. There have been intense negotiations, always with the aim of finding the most appropriate formula to form the alternative government, and not debating whether the motion was opportune or not. And, in fact, in recent days, it was precisely Junts who took the most chances to lead the mayor's office of the government that would dethrone Orriols.

ERC attacks Junts

That is why, in the face of Junts' last-minute resignation, the rest of the opposition parties - ERC, PSC and CUP - are surprised and outraged: "The pact was already made, we had to sign it today, we don't understand anything," sources involved in the negotiations acknowledge in the ARO: "If they didn't want it from the beginning," acknowledge the parties involved, who are also clear that this change of position is determined "by the political calculations of Jordi Turull and Carles Puigdemont" and not by the will of the Junts Ripoll councillors.

For her part, the general secretary of ERC, Elisenda Alamany, has attacked Junts and described its strategy as "deeply mistaken". "Juntos gives us lessons in courage, today it has been unable to build an alternative government. Juntos has not dared," he lamented: "Their legs have trembled before the mayor of Ripoll and before the polls." Oriol Junqueras called Carles Puigdemont this morning to ask him to rethink his position and, according to Alamany, the leader of the Junta has argued his No to the motion of censure due to an internal survey that they had commissioned and in which the people of Ripollet were overwhelmingly against removing Orriols from the mayor's office.