The Orriols surname has become increasingly popular in Catalan politics since the mayor of Ripoll came to power with a fiery speech against immigration and against other pro-independence parties. She is one of the founders of Aliança Catalana, the far-right party that is gaining the most in polls, especially at the expense of Junts. But there is also an Orriols who precisely represents Carles Puigdemont's formation: Irina Orriols, the sister. She is a councilor in Sora, a small town of just over 200 inhabitants in the Osona region, bordering Ripollès. The political origin of the two sisters is the same, the Front Nacional de Catalunya. In fact, they ran together in 2019 in Ripoll, with Sílvia as the lead candidate and Irina in a symbolic number 9, to accompany her sister. But in 2023 they chose different paths and, in Sora, Irina Orriols was the fourth most voted councilor when she represented Junts with the open list system.

The leader of the far-right Catalan independence movement, Sílvia Orriols, once again displayed her Islamophobia this Tuesday, a cornerstone of her political project, as she herself claims. In an interview with Catalunya Ràdio, the head of Aliança Catalana (AC) defended banning the Quran, the holy text of Muslims, arguing that "what it says is barbaric." She didn't stop there: "The Bible also contains phrases taken completely out of context, but the beauty of it is that we Christians know how to contextualize and update them; we don't interpret them literally," she said, in a direct attack on the capabilities of Muslims. "Their own religion says so; the Quran is not open to interpretation," she added, although this premise only applies to certain branches of Islam. The mayor of Ripoll also began the interview by confessing that she lives with "great hope." the US and Israeli attack on Iran"One of the most terrifying regimes in the world could fall," celebrated the woman who, on other occasions, has had no problem expressing her support for Donald Trump. In this regard, she denounced the opposition to the war of Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, whom she criticized for "playing at ambiguity and mediocrity" and for "not being able to stand up for human rights." The far-right leader was referring to the rights of the Iranian population, long repressed by the authorities in Tehran, but she omitted the massacres of the same population that are being caused by the bombs coming from Washington and Tel Aviv.

Nobody likes to speak ill of their country. Me neither. Self-criticism is tedious. It's easier to relativize, to look the other way, to see the speck in someone else's eye and not the log in your own. It's uncomfortable to put your finger on your own wounds. When the wound is open, it hurts. In this article, I do just that: apply a good splash of alcohol to see if our political, social, economic, and cultural body reacts. I confess I don't have much hope. The warning signs are clear.

The leader of Aliança Catalana, Sílvia Orriols, arrived at the Hotel Palace in Barcelona, ​​formerly the Ritz, to outline her political project at a conference in the Fòrum Europa Tribuna Catalunya, which had to be postponed from the end of the year. Orriols made no secret of her hope that the upcoming municipal elections will consolidate her party's growth. She stated that she is confident the cordon sanitaire imposed on her by other parties will have eased after the elections. Orriols offered Junts the possibility of forming a coalition government after the elections. "We will govern with Junts if our program is implemented," she affirmed, after admitting that she feels closer to Carles Puigdemont's party than to Vox or the CUP. And yet, just moments before, she had accused Junts of deceiving the pro-independence movement and guaranteed that with her as president, "independence wouldn't have lasted eight seconds, nor would I have resigned the presidency because of Article 155, which was just a fax," conveniently ignoring the political prisoners and the fact that Puigdemont has been in exile for nine years.

It's no surprise that Lluís Llach dislikes Aliança Catalana. The singer-songwriter and president of the ANC takes every opportunity to make this clear: this Wednesday, he was interviewed on La 2, where he stated that the party led by Sílvia Orriols is nothing more than "a creation to block the independence movement." With Aliança Catalana in the equation, a pro-independence majority in the Catalan Parliament becomes more complicated, because neither ERC, nor the CUP, nor Junts are willing to form a coalition. "There are many people who might be interested in Aliança," he continued. Besides avoiding parliamentary alliances, Llach also cited the polls. "Everything Aliança gains either comes from Vox or Junts, and damaging Junts is very profitable," he emphasized, referring to the political, economic, and media elites of the Spanish state—and of Catalonia, he added—who, in his opinion, are working to stifle the independence movement. Llach's interpretation is very similar to that of other political leaders: the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, has even gone so far as to suggest that Aliança Catalana It could be a creation of the Spanish secret services.

1. We want to believe that Catalonia is different, but when it comes down to it, it ends up generating the same tendencies as the European environment of which we are a part. It seemed that the Catalan far right would never surface, and yet it is currently experiencing accelerated growth, led by Silvia Orriols, who plays the authoritarian card, with anti-immigration rhetoric as her main banner and independence as her objective, thus shattering only a naive belief: that it wasn't pro-Spanish. And it turns out that, yes, as throughout Europe, post-democratic authoritarianism is growing, challenging, and often dragging along the democratic right. This is the problem of ideological naiveté, of taking for granted that we are better than others and that we will be different because we were victims of Spanish domination.

1. Adif and the train drivers who operate in Catalonia have thoroughly inspected all the tracks and identified the number of dangerous areas. They have reported that the sections of commuter rail lines that need repair are exactly 155. Not 154, not 156. 155. Does anyone think this number is a coincidence? Those of us who have been suspicious for some time now see it as a provocation every time this number is mentioned.

Silvia Orriols has made her debut on the golf course. She now has her handicap after being granted access to an area restricted to a select few. More than 200 business owners and executives took the opportunity to network at the end of Saturday's session. green of The Terraverda Hotel in Gualta, owned by the company Emesa, chaired by the person who convened the meeting, lawyer Emili Cuatrecasas. The fact is that a segment of the business community has decided to lift the cordon sanitaire in Aliança Catalana

In less than 24 hours, Santiago Abascal seized upon the Córdoba train accident to declare that "nothing works under corruption and lies," and Silvia Orriols latched onto Salvador Illa's infection to chirp that "a president's life is worth no more than that of a police officer, a mechanic, or a florist..." I would say that if these two statements catch our attention, it's not so much because their content has shocked us more than usual from these two figures, but because they reflect the confidence of the new right that the cultural winds are in their favor—the rhetorical excess that betrays those who have taken the polls at face value and are going overboard. It's impossible to know for sure whether these pronouncements will ultimately add to or detract from their support, but it has become abundantly clear that the aura of authenticity surrounding right-wing leaders is just as much of a pose as that of the rivals they criticize so vehemently, and in reality, they all follow the same playbook.

Hyper-leadership is a widespread characteristic in newly formed political parties. Podemos experienced this firsthand with Pablo Iglesias, Ciudadanos with Albert Rivera, Vox with Santiago Abascal –although its founders were different–, Junts with Carles Puigdemont, and now Aliança Catalana with Sílvia Orriols. It's true that more established parties aren't immune either, and there are countless examples, though these tend to be tempered by internal changes over time. Orriols' public exposure helps her party grow, as all the polls confirm. Behind closed doors, hyper-leadership becomes more difficult to manage, even in the case of Aliança, according to some within the party. This hyper-leadership is put to the test every week in the Catalan Parliament, where Orriols' interventions in plenary sessions are the main message that Aliança uses in all its communications. But Orriols isn't alone in the room. A few weeks ago, Aliança's communications secretary, Lluís Areny, and Rosa Maria Soberana, the deputy who serves alongside Orriols in the Catalan Parliament, refused to take questions at a press conference. In this regard, some within the party suggest that only Orriols could provide certain answers. Since then, they haven't even held their usual weekly press conference in the Catalan Parliament. A review of the party's social media reveals that most of the videos Aliança posts on its profiles are of Orriols' speeches in Parliament. The official accounts even repost speeches from months ago, highlighting some of the party's key issues, notes political communications consultant Xavier Tomàs. This is "unthinkable in any other party" and serves to further "reinforce" the hyper-leadership, he adds.

Despite leading a political party with significant electoral prospects, Silvia Orriols—and, in general, the leaders of Aliança Catalana—have a modest public presence. This contrasts sharply with politicians from other parties who spend their days posting on social media and strive for omnipresence in the press. In the case of Aliança Catalana, is this an oversight or a deliberate strategy? It seems that, despite being risky, the gamble is already paying off. A political party aspiring to consolidate its hegemonic power can choose between two strategies: clearly define its platform or become an abstract concept, open to interpretation by voters according to their own expectations. This second, seemingly paradoxical path can be effective in societies where diverse interests make it difficult to craft a single narrative that satisfies everyone. Indefiniteness then becomes an asset, because it is not an absence of content but a magic mirror in which each citizen sees their problems and aspirations reflected. Marked by volatility and immediacy, current politics tends to reward those actors capable of generating strong emotions, rather than offering concrete and feasible solutions, which are naively taken for granted. The diffuse, blurred idea functions as a symbol: it doesn't say exactly how it will materialize, but it suggests that it can become the vehicle for change, or security, or prosperity, that each person desires in their own way. Ambiguity allows the same slogan to be interpreted differently by a businessperson seeking stability, by a young person earning an insufficient salary, or by someone who is simply very angry about things that happened in 2017. The strength of the party-idea, then, lies in its ability to avoid contradicting any of these interpretations, maintaining its place within a specific space.

Killing the father figure is important for life in general, but for politics it is absolutely necessary. Politics is a collective discussion about the nature of good and what we must do to achieve it, and change begins when the feeling spreads that the old vision that explained it to us is running out and a new one is needed. Any political renewal is always a "transvaluation of values," as Nietzsche said; someone who points out that the emperor has no clothes, that what everyone says is no longer tenable, and that where no one is looking is precisely where we should focus our attention. The charismatic leader acts like the modern artist, who denounces the fossilization of the old canon and proposes a new form that challenges it from top to bottom—a scandal. In the feverish moment of cultural revelation, the break with the past anoints the breaker with an aura of irresistible novelty, and then the marginal takes center stage and begins to rise like foam.

The latest barometer from the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO) has confirmed a widespread feeling In inland Catalonia: the rise of Aliança Catalana (AC) on the Catalan political scene, positioning it as the third strongest force in hypothetical regional elections. But that's not all. In the provinces of Lleida and Girona—from which the party's two current (and only) representatives in the Catalan Parliament hail: Sílvia Orriols, mayor of Ripoll, and Rosa Maria Soberana, from Vinaixa (Les Garrigues)—it would become the leading party. But what are the reasons behind this apparent exponential growth of Aliança in the Girona and Lleida regions?

That Aliança Catalana (AC) is causing discomfort within Junts, ERC, and the CUP is a given. It's also true that none of the three have found a way to stop the rise of this far-right party. Junts is the one suffering most from this surge, as it's the party from which AC would siphon off the most votes, according to the latest published polls. However, if we consider the data from the latest barometer by the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO), Esquerra would also see a 4% shift of votes toward Sílvia Orriols' party—compared to 8% for Junts. Until now, the Republicans had distanced themselves from Aliança, but had only engaged in confrontation on a few occasions. For example, MP Najat Driouech had done so in Parliament in response to Orriols' Islamophobic remarks. But last Sunday, Oriol Junqueras went a step further and directly suggested that Aliança was an "instrument" created by the Spanish secret services to divide the independence movement. Why did he do this? Has ERC changed its strategy?

Dressed entirely in black, stepping on the corpse of a former president of the Catalan government and grinning from ear to ear. This is the artificial intelligence (AI)-created image of the leader of the Catalan Alliance, Sílvia Orriols, and former president Carles Puigdemont that is circulating on social media following its publication in a Girona media outlet affiliated with the far-right party. Furthermore, some users have gone further and used the image to make a video, also using AI, in which Orriols is seen shooting the former president. Lawyer Gonzalo Boye has already announced that he will take this video to the Prosecutor's Office, considering it a hate crime.

It's possible that if Silvia Orriols hadn't won the mayoralty of Ripoll, the Catalan Alliance would never have entered Parliament. Today, this remains a mystery, but what is certain is that neither of these two events would have happened without the participation of Margarita Cabello. This retired woman from Ripoll is the founder and number one member of the Catalan Alliance. "I started it all," she tells ARA from the room where she taught extracurricular English classes to the town's children. It was in this small room with a balcony overlooking Ripoll's Plaça Gran and from which an estelada (Spanish flag) flutters that it was agreed to present a candidacy for the far-right party in the 2019 municipal elections.

One of the paradoxes of the post-Process and the peace The autonomist movement imposed by Salvador Illa is that international politics is being discussed more in Parliament than ever. Whether deliberately or accidentally. Sílvia Orriols spoke out completely consciously, appearing with a heart emblazoned with the Israeli flag on her jacket and unabashedly defending Benjamin Netanyahu's government's response to the Hamas attacks two years ago. Not even Ignacio Garriga of Vox dared to go so far. As for Junts, this Wednesday they voted in favor of an arms embargo on Israel and on Tuesday they stood up to applaud Pilar Castillejo, CUP deputy and Flotilla participant. However, neither their spokesperson, Albert Batet, nor Carles Puigdemont spoke. genocide. These are the balances of a party that lives between two waters.

The mayor of Ripoll, Silvia Orriols, has already secured the new civility ordinances. After a failed first attempt in the summer, the municipal plenary session initially approved the new regulations, with the favorable votes of Aliança, Junts, and Som-hi Ripoll. The difference between the text Orriols presented at the plenary session on Monday and what she presented a few months ago is that, in the approved version, the ban on the Islamic veil that the far-right mayor intended to introduce is absent. In response to this change, the Junts municipal group decided to vote in favor, responding, they argue, to the requests of "residents and merchants" to address the problems of "insecurity and incivility" in Ripoll. ERC, PSC, and CUP voted against, criticizing the punitive approach of the text submitted to the plenary session.

When a newspaper commissions a survey, its dream is that it will be full of headlines, and its nightmare is that it won't have any (it may also happen that the headlines that do come out don't please the newspaper's readers, but that's another story). The survey published this Sunday The Vanguard Not only is it full of headlines, but it's also shaking up the Catalan political landscape in spectacular fashion. It's coming in spades.

The Diades are long gone from the massive pro-independence demonstrations, those that ultimately marked the political course and generated a turning point in the Catalan and state paradigm. Catalonia has been in a post-independence period for at least a year and a half—since the independence movement lost the Catalan government after the March 12 elections—and this year's Diada certifies this. However, while it's true that the mobilization this September 11th had even lower participation—some 41,500 people in Barcelona, ​​​​Girona, ​​and Tortosa—than a year ago (70,000 across Catalonia), the streets continue to fill with unconditional supporters, proving that the movement has not disappeared. It doesn't have the institutional power it held a year ago, with the Generalitat as its leading exponent, but the pro-independence parties continue to influence the Catalan and state legislatures. In fact, they hold the key. And as was the case before 2010, when the Process was barely getting started, now the political agenda is no longer set by the path towards a state of its own, but by everyday issues that also structure a nation. Catalan is the clearest example and has become the spearhead of this Diada.