The philosophers Jordi Corominas and Joan Albert Vicens call to combat the rise of the radical right with their essay Extrema dreta. Què ens hi juguem? (Eumo), where they provide arguments to debate ultra positions.

Just a year ago, the PSC spokesperson in Tiana, Miquel Santiago, announced his resignation. The decision took the local group by surprise, as they had planned for him to be the candidate in 2027 after being number 2 in the previous elections and for the party leader to step down due to poor election results, which confirmed the victory of an independent party, now with an absolute majority. Little did the socialists of this Maresme locality imagine that a year later Santiago would propose himself to be the leader of Aliança Catalana, a party at the opposite end of his beliefs.

The canoeist Saúl Craviotto (Alpicat, 1984) gave the opening speech for the Lleida May Fiestas on Friday behind closed doors due to the rejection of his choice by a part of civil society. Basically because Craviotto, the Spanish athlete with the most Olympic medals –six–, was already a National Police agent before becoming a sports icon and he positioned himself against the referendum and in favor of the application of Article 155, endorsing the police repression of 1-O. With this curriculum, about twenty parties and entities unsuccessfully demanded that a substitute be sought, but Mayor Fèlix Larrosa replied that he was "an example of values".

The CUP usually reconsiders its decisions after a failure. It did so after losing the two seats it had in Congress in the last general elections. Then, it agreed to park its participation in the general elections and, if there isn't a 180-degree turn, it will not field a list in 2027. Also in next year's municipal elections, it could make a painful decision that the rest of the parties with a presence in Parliament will undoubtedly not make: not to run in one of the four provincial capitals.

Elisenda Carrera is no longer a councilor for Ara Vic. The Vic City Council reported this Wednesday that the Ara Vic councilor has formally requested to leave the political group and become a non-attached councilor. The decision comes the day after Xavier Farrés, the other councilor for the Vigatan formation of the defunct PDECat, announced that they would expel her if she did not leave the council, at a press conference in the consistory accompanied by other members of the party's executive. Her departure comes in response to rumors, as advanced by el ARA, which place her as the possible candidate for Aliança Catalana in Vic in the next municipal elections. "Expulsion no longer makes sense because it was her decision to leave the group," Farrés states in conversation with el ARA.

The Sindicat d'Estudiants dels Països Catalans (SEPC) repainted two weeks ago the pro-independence mural in the UAB's Plaça Cívica that the rectorate had erased by judicial order during Easter week and which had been welcoming students for thirteen years. Only two days later, the pro-Spanish elements eliminated it. This was done by the association Unión de Brigadas, which brings together seven small groups from all over Catalonia – four of which are active –, mainly from the metropolitan area of Barcelona, who are dedicated to removing pro-independence symbolism from public spaces.

Josep Vila (Cellera de Ter, 1959) was elected president of the National Catalan Assembly last Saturday. An election that took everyone by surprise. Few knew that the then leader of the entity, Lluís Llach, would step aside. In his first interview, he explains how the election went and the challenges he sets for himself under his presidency.

Hundreds of militants and sympathizers of Aliança Catalana filled the Fossar de les Moreres on the eve of the Diada to lay a floral tribute to the fallen of 1714. This is the image that Arran wants to prevent from happening again. Last year, about forty Arran members could not access the emblematic space because the Mossos d'Esquadra prevented them from doing so. The Catalan police sought to prevent the incidents of the previous year from recurring, and the youth of the CUP had to limit themselves to displaying a banner on the passeig del Born that read "In the Fossar de les Moreres we bury the traitors, we overthrow the extreme right", while the event proceeded with complete normality.

The 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.

Sílvia Orriols is considering running in the elections again. But she will not do so for Aliança Catalana. No, we are not talking about the leader of the Islamophobic party, who has already made it clear that she wants to revalidate the mayorship of Ripoll with the formation she created after breaking with the Front. We are talking about another Sílvia Orriols, the one who was mayoress of Llívia from 2011 to 2015 and who retired from politics in 2021."There is one year left until the elections and I do not rule out taking the step again at some point, because I did not like how I left," advances the Cerdaña politician in conversation with ARA, who reiterates that "it is not a definitively closed chapter." As for offers, there is no shortage. "Here we all talk to each other," she points out without specifying if she has any firm proposals. And if she received an offer from Aliança Catalana, would she accept it? "I would not accept it, I am more open and I do not like their discourse against immigration; here in the town we have always had immigration, and as a site manager, I work with people from all countries throughout the region."

Surprise in capital letters at the helm of the ANC. Lluís Llach is no longer the president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC). After two years in office, the singer-songwriter has decided to step aside and hand over the presidency to Josep Vila, but he will remain in the entity's leadership to exercise representation. Llach will be the vice-president and Vila, who had been the ANC coordinator in the city of Girona and was now the coordinator of the Political Incidence Commission, will be the new president, in a agreed handover that was formalized this Saturday at the constituent plenary of the new secretariat, held in Igualada.

President Salvador Illa is known for being a punctual person. And this Sant Jordi day, he even arrived a quarter of an hour early. The head of the executive arrived at quarter past four at the PSC stall when journalists had been summoned for half past four and made a lightning tour of the intersection of Rambla Catalunya with Diputació street. There, Illa took the first photos with some supporters and exchanged a few words with the second vice-president of the Parliament's board, David Pérez, and also with the Minister of Justice, Ramon Espadaler.

"Today Lithuania, tomorrow Catalonia". Paintings with this slogan appeared all over Catalonia Aliança Catalana now introduces a new player: Rhodesia. What is now Zimbabwe was an unrecognized state, governed by a white minority, which emerged when it unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965 to avoid a black majority government, with the end of colonization. The independence, which was effective from 1965 to 1979, aimed to perpetuate the power of the 240,000 white people who lived there versus the 4.5 million Africans, who did not have the right to vote and from whom they took their land, which caused a bloody conflict that lasted a decade.

The two councilors of the PSC of Ripoll who allowed Sílvia Orriols to approve the budgets thanks to their abstention were leaving office on Monday amid reproaches and with a clear warning to the party. "We want to state that the local branch does not share this decision in any case; what's more, it is in absolute disagreement. There is no member of the list who has shown any predisposition to take over from our councilors. This is a decision made unilaterally by the national leadership of the PSC," stated Enric Pérez and Anna Belén Avilés in a joint statement. In summary, the two councilors warned that no one from the candidacy would take over from them. Orriols resorted to irony in Wednesday's control session in the Parliament, thanking the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, for what the socialists are doing in Ripoll: "Thank you for the budgets, but above all for having dismantled the PSC, which has been a masterstroke," he snapped.

Enric Pérez and Anna Belén Avilés are no longer representatives of the PSC in the Ripoll City Council. Nor does the local socialist group exist anymore in the capital of Ripoll. The PSC Federation of the Girona regions agreed this Tuesday to liquidate the Ripoll executive and create a management committee. The leadership has made this decision after the local group closed ranks with the two councilors, who had warned that no one from the candidacy wanted to replace them because they disagree with the decision to expel them. Both resigned on Monday after the party censured them for abstaining from voting on the budgets and allowing Aliança Catalana to approve them. Their resignation has opened an unprecedented crisis in the PSC of Ripoll. The two councilors have left with reproaches to the PSC, and now the leadership will have to find people willing to take over the seat for the remaining year of the term.

With the municipal elections of 2027 on the horizon, Alianza Catalana has been activating its machinery for months to find candidates, including a takeover bid for Junts officials and from the convergent space with the aim of incorporating them into their lists. But amidst meetings and calls left and right, there was an operation that was cooked up last year that aimed to take away the mayor of an entire county capital. As ARA has been able to learn, Alianza Catalana tried to sign the mayor of Figueres, Jordi Masquef, without success. An intermediary, Miquel, a grassroots militant of the far-right party in Empordà, got in touch with the Junts mayor, with whom they already knew each other. The mayor responded to his messages in November, stalled him, and finally rejected the offer, according to knowledgeable sources.

Ripoll's politics has acquired national relevance, with media overexposure of its councilors due to the arrival of Aliança Catalana. This week, the municipal spokesperson for the PSC, Enric Pérez (Ripoll, 1980), has experienced this. After his group abstained and allowed Silvia Orriols' budget approval, the indignant socialist leadership summoned the two councilors, and they put their positions at the party's disposal.

Earthquake in the PSC. The socialist municipal group of Ripoll acknowledges "the error that the abstention in the City Council's budget plenary session represents" which allowed Aliança Catalana to approve them, and the two councilors of the group have placed their positions at the party's disposal. They did so after meeting with the PSC federation of the Girona regions, which had previously issued a statement distancing itself from the decision made by the municipal group. "This decision does not have the endorsement or prior knowledge of this federation," stated the federation, which had summoned the two councilors "immediately" to "demand explanations and act accordingly.

The Student Union of the Catalan Countries (SEPC) has called to repaint the pro-independence mural in Plaça Cívica of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) next Tuesday, April 14, at 12 p.m., after the university decided, at judicial request, to erase it during the absence of activity on campus for Easter. "We will not let them get away with it and we will repaint the mural as many times as necessary," warned the spokespersons of the pro-independence union. The two members of the union who spoke at the press conference stated that defending the mural is defending "collective memory, student organization, and the politicization of campuses to fight for a better future." In this regard, the SEPC justifies the "struggle from the classrooms" for independent, socialist, and feminist Catalan Countries.