Don't let reality spoil a good headline. It is the premise that the mayor of Ripoll, Sílvia Orriols, of the far-right pro-independence party Aliança Catalana has just adopted.
The mayor published yesterday, out of nowhere, a tweet that reads: "I have sent a request to the Regional Council requesting, among other things, that they guarantee that all the meat served in the Ripoll school cafeterias comes from animals slaughtered with sedation or prior stunning. “Out with halal menus in public schools!”
What she thinks about Orriols immigration and what she would do with the residents of Ripoll who came from outside who do not have their situation regularized is already known. But the surprising thing about this tweet, in a new chapter for the mayor with migrants, is that none of the public schools in Ripoll serve halal menus in their dining rooms.
“It asks that something that does not exist be removed,” they say from the Ripollès Regional Council, in charge of managing school canteens. So the application presented by Orriols before that local entity will have little impact. The headline, yes, has already been released.
From the same Consell Comarcal it is also revealed that at this time there is no intention to include halal foods on the menus of schools in Ripoll or the region, which makes the message launched on social networks by Sílvia Orriols even more surprising.
La Vanguardia tried yesterday without success to speak with the mayor; know the reason for that tweet with a request and statement that does not fit reality. Find out what her concern is about on this topic. The response from the council? “The mayor is not going to reflect on this issue.” If we use the popular proverb again, it seems that Orriols throws another stone and hides his hand.
If the mayor of Ripoll is so concerned about not serving menus for Muslims in the town's public schools (something that, it must be repeated, does not currently happen) "she could have taken another path", instead of publishing a tweet that seems to only seek to generate controversy, the Regional Council points out.
And the City Council that he directs (Aliança Catalana governs with only 6 of the 17 councilors) “could have requested, before December 31 of last year, the municipal management of school cafeterias; but he didn't do it,” say the same sources.
Orriols' “concern” for animal welfare and, consequently, for halal school menus goes back a long way. Years ago he stood at the doors of a slaughterhouse in Ripoll to demand the prohibition of the sacrifice of animals according to the Muslim rite (they are beheaded) and denounced the harassment of several dozen immigrants who reproached him for the protest.
When talking about halal, we mention a method of animal sacrifice that consists of a deep incision in the neck with a sharp knife, cutting the jugular vein and the carotid artery. The aim is for the animal to bleed out without touching the spine
