About 600 people, according to the police, demonstrated this Sunday at noon in Ripoll (Girona) against the policies promoted by the mayor ultra of the municipality, Silvia Orriols. The rally, promoted by anti-fascist groups, took place without incident and amidst extensive security by the Mossos d’Esquadra. Arriving from different parts of Catalonia, the protesters They have chanted slogans against repressive policies which, in his opinion, Orriols has carried out since she became mayor in June of last year under the brand of Catalan Alliance. The local police have reduced the number of attendees to 250, which the organizers have increased to a thousand.
The protest began in the Town Hall square and has traveled through the streets of the municipality until the home of the also deputy in the Parlament Orriolswho has been present a few meters from the protesters. The mayor had attacked the day before against an action carried out by “foreigners” that, in her opinion, aims to “question the vote of the Ripolleses”, who in the 2023 municipal elections placed Aliança as the most voted force.
The spark that ignited the protest was the temporary closure of a popular club, La Metxa, ordered last May by the council on the grounds that it posed a risk to “security and coexistence.” After presenting the appropriate allegations, the establishment – linked to the pro-independence left – has managed to reopen its doors this September. However, the files and fines opened against several of its members and also other local left-wing activists led those responsible to call a demonstration in Ripoll, epicenter of the rise of the pro-independence extreme right in Catalonia. “We oppose the easy rhetoric that the extreme right is trying to spread in Ripoll and everywhere,” said Joana Ortega, spokesperson for La Metxa.
“Against fascism, direct action”, “Ripoll anti-fascist” or “he who sows misery, reaps rage” are the slogans that have been repeated throughout the march, which despite the high tension ended without incident. As the procession advanced through the streets of this town of 10,000 inhabitants, some neighbors, especially those of foreign origin who feel singled out by Orriols, joined it. This is the case of Faissal, who has reported that he has been waiting “two and a half months to register” his children, who arrived from his country for family reunification. “Without a registry they don’t have a health card or anything. And since I have been settled here for seven years, working and with everything in order, I have no help. And this happens in Ripoll, I don’t know why the mayor does it.”
Bureaucratic obstacles have been one of the most controversial measures promoted by Orriols. Over time, left-wing groups in the municipality have also reported that they are victims of municipal harassment with the imposition of fines and sanctions. For example, for putting up posters to protest the mayor’s decision to censor the winning poster for the local festivals, in which a girl was seen wearing an Islamic veil.
Muslims feel in the eye of the hurricane in a municipality where Islam is a sensitive issue: the young people who committed the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils in 2017 were born and raised here, a wound that Orriols has used to his advantage to gain support popular. Ali Yassine, president of the Annour Islamic community — where Imam Abdelbaki Es Satty gave sermons, who radicalized the young people of Ripoll — was present at the march to reject Aliança. “The extreme right will have no place in this world. “We will continue fighting and defending our rights.”
