Aliança Catalana, a party that blends separatist rhetoric with a hard‑line stance on immigration and public safety, has seen its support jump from 3.8% to 16.7% in recent polling, according to a survey published by El Mundo this month. The poll places the party 2.6 points ahead of fellow separatist ERC and just behind the national Socialist Party that currently governs the region.
The party’s rapid rise is being driven by its leader, 41‑year‑old Silvia Orriols, a former librarian from a middle‑class farming family. Orriols told Reuters that Aliança is tapping into voter frustration with established politicians and fears that immigration is eroding Catalan identity. She cited the recent victory of Germany’s far‑right Alternative for Germany in Saxony‑Anhalt as evidence that “Europe is awakening.”
Aliança first entered the Catalan parliament in 2024 with two seats after Orriols won a local election in the mountain town of Ripoll in 2023, where her anti‑Muslim message resonated in a community that housed many of the Moroccan‑born perpetrators of the 2017 Barcelona terror attacks. Since then, the party has broadened its appeal among working‑ and middle‑class voters in rural areas outside Barcelona, drawing support from former Junts and even Vox backers.
The party’s growing influence has already begun to reshape Catalan politics. Earlier this month, riot police intervened to prevent violent clashes between Aliança supporters and left‑wing separatists during Barcelona’s September 11 national day celebrations, underscoring deepening divisions within the independence movement. Traditional pro‑independence parties such as ERC and Junts have ruled out any governing pact with Aliança, warning that its proposals are “unrealistic and discriminatory.”
While Aliança says it would unilaterally declare independence if it won power, its campaign is focused more on curbing immigration and improving security than on secession itself. A July survey of Catalan voters showed that concerns about affordable housing, migration and crime now top the list of priorities, a shift from the economic anxieties that drove the 2017 independence push.
Historians and analysts note that the party’s ascent reflects a broader “demographic anxiety” among Catalans. Joan Esculies, a historian, said Aliança is an “expression of frustration at the lack of a viable path towards independence and a cry born of fear as new waves of immigration pose a greater threat to the Catalan language.” Despite the split, support for outright independence remains relatively high at 45%, only slightly down from its 2017 peak.
Critics argue that Aliança offers no concrete solutions and that its xenophobic rhetoric threatens to polarise Catalan society further. Left‑wing separatist Hug Lucchetti described the party’s discourse as “racist and exclusionary,” while urging the independence movement to stay alive through new activist ranks.