The national leadership of the PSC announced this Tuesday the dismissal of the Ripoll councilors Enric Pérez and Anna Belén Avilés, after both abstained in the vote on the budgets of Mayor Sílvia Orriols, from Aliança Catalana.
The decision opens a new internal crisis in the socialist group of the capital of Ripollès. The two councilors have presented their resignation "for responsibility" after admitting that their abstention on the municipal accounts was a mistake.
Clash between the leadership and the local group
The departure of Pérez and Avilés does not have the support of the local PSC group of Ripoll, which has expressed its "absolute disagreement" with the forced dismissal of both municipal representatives.
The handover, however, becomes complicated immediately. None of the people who were part of the list with which the PSC ran in the 2023 municipal elections is willing to assume the councilor's seat on the Ripoll City Council.
Resignation also in the Govern
Enric Pérez has also requested to leave his position as advisor to the minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, in a move linked to the open crisis after the vote on the municipal budgets.
The situation leaves the PSC of Ripoll in a scenario of maximum institutional and organic weakness, with the party leadership imposing the dismissal of its two councilors and without immediate replacement to occupy their place in the council.