Sílvia Orriols had high hopes for the man who was going to be the candidate of Aliança Catalana for the 2027 municipal elections, which will serve to measure the true momentum of the ultra party. But the mayor of Ripoll (Girona) and deputy in the Parliament will have to look for another person because the mayoral candidate they had trusted has stood them up. “The person to whom we had entrusted the project has gone back on their word and will not run for Aliança,” Orriols revealed in a brief press conference in the Parliament that the Islamophobic party had tried to present positively, announcing the integration of an independent group from Berga (Barcelona) into the ranks of Aliança.
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The expectation about the candidate for Barcelona had been fueled by Orriols herself. At a conference at the New Economy Forum in Barcelona a few weeks ago, and faced with the presenter’s insistent questions to reveal his name, the leader of Aliança ended up saying it was “a well-known man.” Later she announced that the party had chosen the Diada de Sant Jordi, that is, a week from now, as the date to publicly reveal his name. It will not be possible. In response to journalists’ questions, the mayor explained that on April 23 she will announce the names of “several” Aliança candidates in various cities, “but probably not Barcelona’s.” The reason: the planned candidate has reconsidered and they have to explore other options.
“We are in talks with different people who could lead that list, but we don’t want to rush,” said Orriols. About the desired candidate who has backed out, the mayor stated that “he will not run for Aliança,” but did not clarify whether that means he will run under the banner of another party or simply gives up running in the municipal elections.
Aliança has been preparing for the 2027 elections for months, where it is supposed to make the big leap forward that the polls predict. All parties struggle when they have to assemble electoral lists for many towns and cities. Even more so a newly created party like Aliança, which has approached (sometimes successfully) councilors from other political formations (mainly Junts per Catalunya, but also Esquerra and the CUP) to present people with some experience at the head of lists that, in many cases, are still to be defined.
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Agreements with independents
The party has meanwhile found ways to grow outside of elections. In the 2023 municipal elections, Aliança gained eight councilors in three municipalities: six of them in Ripoll (Girona, 10,000 inhabitants), where Orriols is mayor and governs in minority. After winning two deputies in the Parliament and with the polls soaring, Aliança has been incorporating into its project, through “collaboration agreements,” independent formations from various municipalities, which in practice has given it a municipal muscle far greater than that provided by voters. The latest agreement is the one announced precisely this Thursday by Orriols: the integration of Berga Grup Independent (BeGi), which has two councilors in the capital of Berguedà, an inland region of Catalonia, into Aliança. The agreement includes that BeGi councilor Judit Vinyes will be the party’s ultra mayoral candidate in 2027.
Graduated in geology, entrepreneur and self-employed, Vinyes thanked the “trust” placed by Orriols and the Secretary of Organization, Oriol Gès, and committed herself to “serve the country.” “Ripoll and Berga face similar challenges, and that is why this agreement makes perfect sense, it is the will to join forces in a national project that speaks clearly and is not ashamed to say what it thinks,” said Vinyes, who denounced the “abandonment of inland Catalonia” and assured that negotiations to sign the agreement with Aliança lasted a year.
