Women, the Achilles' heel of Aliança Catalana

BarcelonaJosep Maria. This is how opponents of Aliança Catalana sarcastically call a militant or sympathizer of Sílvia Orriols' party. It is an ironic stereotype to describe a profile of a traditional and conservative middle-aged man who used to vote for Convergència and has now switched to Aliança. There are even users on social media who use this name to ridicule the Islamophobic formation, emphasizing the lack of women at their events or stalls. Beyond the sarcasm, the data supports the party's male bias. Only 19% of the party's 2,500 militants are women, meaning fewer than 500, despite it being a new party that continues to grow in membership, and it is the only one, along with the Comuns, that is led by a woman. It is the lowest figure among parties with representation in Parliament, according to data provided by the political forces themselves, at the request of ARA. Vox, the other far-right formation, has a similar problem and only counts on 24.5% women among its membership. Following behind are the PP, with 32.2%; the CUP, with 34.1%; ERC, with 35.15%, and Junts and Comuns, with 40%. The PSC is the most feminized party with 49.1%.The profile of an Aliança militant resembles that of its voter: it is also the party with the fewest female voters. According to the latest poll by the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió (CEO), published in November, out of every 100 voters of the far-right party, only 39 are women compared to 61 who are men. And this statistic also goes hand in hand with Vox, which has 43% women and 57% men as voters. For their part, the percentage of women who say they will vote for the CUP is 45%, Junts and PP have 48%, while women are the majority among voters for Comuns (52%), ERC (54%), and PSC (56%). This low percentage of women in parties makes it difficult to form lists for municipal elections. This was acknowledged by the mayor of Ripoll during the first municipal convention, held in early February in Ripoll. The party leader admitted the difficulties they face in adapting to electoral regulations, which require the formation of zipper lists with parity between men and women. The law for effective equality between women and men, approved in 2007, establishes that in municipalities with more than 3,000 inhabitants, in each block of five candidates, no sex can have less than 40% of representatives. Thus, for example, among the first five places, there must be a minimum of two men and two women. This balance, which is not subject to whether the mayoral candidate is male or female, means that Aliança is aware that lists may be at risk due to a lack of women. "We will work to reverse this trend," stated the leader of Aliança during the municipal convention with an eye on the next elections. and can aspire to obtain the maximum number of councilors, this lack of women in their ranks also plays a key role.

Call from the leadershipThe leadership, through the Secretary of Organization, Oriol Gès, has already conveyed to the regional executives that have been created in recent months the need to incorporate women as militants and to take advantage of the information stalls that the formation sets up every weekend throughout the country to attract new members. In fact, with the aim of giving them a prominent place, where possible, Aliança has placed women at the head of the regional executive committees. Thus, 11 out of the 31 regional bodies are chaired by women, representing 35.5% of the total, a percentage that almost doubles the number of female members. Esther Baldajos, in Alt Penedès; Imma Nadal, in Bages; Roser Morales, in Baix Empordà; Montserrat Cañete, in Baix Llobregat Nord; Susana Sala, in Garrotxa; Gisela Sidera, in Gironès; Marina Quintana, in Osona; Gemma Sidró, in La Noguera; Olga Pagès, in Pla de l'Estany; Anna Flores, in Ripollès, and Sònia Massa, in Selva, are currently the regional presidents that Aliança has. And there would be another one in Maresme if Marta Balcells had not resigned due to disagreements with the leadership, . And in the governing committee, the highest leadership body of the party, of the six leaders, two are women: Sílvia Orriols herself and Aurora Fornos, a former candidate in Tarragona.