Voting for Orriols in Madrid: the mirror of Aliança Catalana

Wanting to vote for Orriols in Madrid: the longing that already exists in Catalonia

The demand exists and so does the paradox. There are those in Madrid who call for a party like that of Silvia Orriols, the leader of Aliança Catalana, and at the same time that party cannot be voted for there: it only runs in Catalonia and its flag is pro-independence. They are asking to import a project whose identity consists, precisely, of being Catalan.

The complaint is directed above all against the Spanish right, which one participant considers insufficient. The idea of replicating the model with a similar party in Madrid works as a hypothetical wish, not as an available electoral option. And the mirror held up to Vox reflects, depending on how you look at it, either a virtue or a warning.

What Aliança Catalana is and why it cannot be voted for in Madrid

Aliança Catalana is a Catalan pro-independence party led by Silvia Orriols. Its scope of action is Catalonia, so the ballot does not exist in the Community of Madrid. That is where it all starts: the desire to replicate it clashes with the fact that its raison d'être is Catalan and pro-sovereignty.

The 2023 election results are put forward as an argument that the project is not a bar-room utopia. The party has been gaining weight in the Catalan political space, and those who advocate transferring the model argue that it shows there is a vote available that others are not capturing.

The clash with Vox: the proposal Aliança did not support

In the Parliament of Catalonia, a Vox proposal to curb immigration and the distribution of unaccompanied minors was voted on. As is stressed, Aliança Catalana did not vote in favour. The detail is used to question the coherence of Orriols's project with its own principles.

Against that, the opposite argument is raised: a party that does not govern can afford to present apparent or directly impossible proposals, and voting against them is not equivalent to rejecting the underlying objective. With that reasoning, it is argued that Aliança's no is not a contradiction, but a calculated position.

Girona, thermometer and exaggeration

The province of Girona concentrates much of the discussion. A post circulated on social media described that territory as the most fascist region in Western Europe since 1945 and labelled 10 of its 17 deputies with a derogatory far-right tag. It is a political assessment, not an electoral fact, and it should be read as such.

Others argue the opposite: that the rise of Aliança Catalana in Girona reflects a real vote that is growing and threatens rivals' seats. The conversation also drifted towards personal episodes, such as the urgent selective process called in Ripoll for a local police position in which Orriols's daughter is said to have taken part, without any firm conclusion being drawn from it.

What the voter asks for and what the system offers

The essence of the complaint is not a specific party. It is the repeated feeling that none of the existing options says what that voter wants to hear without nuances. Hence the pull of a discourse that does not ask permission.

If that gap is real and large, someone will fill it in Madrid sooner or later. If it is a Catalan echo with no possible translation, the complaint will remain just that. Neither of the two can be taken for granted yet.