Esquerra has grown bigger just as it was unleashing its artillery against Junts per Catalunya, considering that its position on immigration is explained by the “fear” that the far-right pro-independence party Aliança Catalana would take away their votes. The white label of Oriol Junqueras in the town of Ribera d'Ondara (Segarra) is negotiating with the only councilor of the Islamophobic formation in the town, Albert Puig, to unseat the mayor, from the PSC.
The national leadership of ERC has shown its profound disagreement with this possible understanding and, according to what it points out, they have informed the party's number one in Ribera d'Ondara, Elisabet Jové, of her suspension as a member and have put in place the "disciplinary mechanisms that could lead to in expulsion.” The other two councilors are independent, so ERC cannot act against them.
Ribera d'Ondara has about 450 inhabitants and the full City Council is made up of only three members of the PSC, three more from the Republicans and the councilor of the party led by Ripoll, Sílvia Orriols. The motion of censure would go ahead if the opposition agreed. Sources from the Socialists affirm that they offered themselves to the ERC group to put the disagreements behind them, but according to these same sources, the Republicans refused, considering that their decision had “no way back.”
The positioning of his local group (Acord Municipal–ERC) hurts the national headquarters of Esquerra, especially if one takes into account that Junqueras, four days earlier, had attacked JxCat's speech on immigration. “Embracing the discourses of the extreme right that criminalize migrants, far from solving situations of poverty and exclusion, puts social cohesion at risk, a country shared with everyone who lives in it and its incorporation into the national project. We have a lot at stake,” the president of the Republicans wrote then.
To round it off, Orriols added fuel to the fire through the X platform. Upon learning that the Republicans had initiated the procedures to expel the spokeswoman of the local group, the mayoress of Ripoll and leader of the xenophobic party wrote: "ERC, a party that tolerates and invests in Españolism, but does not support the sense of the Catalan Alliance".
ERC- Ribera d'Ondara justifies the possible understanding with Aliança Catalana due to the disagreement on the budget. The Republicans warned on December 2 that Mayor Francesc Sabanés had to do “a good rethink.” Otherwise, they pointed out the possibility of “forcing a change of government.”
This Monday, ERC announced that the municipal government “is already in discount time” and that it would have to assume, “out of respect for all our voters and all neighbors,” that the four opposition councilors would take “seriously the possibility of reach an agreement, to make a change of government.”
The reaction from the national leadership of ERC came on Monday night. He warned that pacts that include the participation of “any formation that supports xenophobic and fascist approaches are not possible,” and they referred to the party's statutes to warn that the motion of censure could constitute “a very serious offense that could lead to the “expulsion of those who had a militant relationship with the party.”
