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Ines Arrimadas, thorn in side of Catalan separatists
BARCELONA, Dec 22, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – Ines Arrimadas, the leader in
Catalonia of the pro-unity Ciudadanos party which made huge gains but fell
short of winning a crucial vote on Thursday, has seen her relentless attacks
against her rivals’ independence drive bear fruit.
The charismatic 36-year-old has in recent years been one of the fiercest
critics of the secessionist project in media interviews and during debates in
Catalonia’s regional parliament.
She has blasted the separatists’ bid to break Catalonia away from Spain as
a “coup against democracy” and accused the region’s axed president, Carles
Puigdemont, of having embarked on a “Kafkian” process and of not listening to
opponents.
“You don’t like to show your face, you don’t like to talk, you don’t like
to debate, you don’t like to negotiate with anyone who is not like you,” she
said during a debate in the Catalan parliament just before it voted to
declare independence in October.
– Meteoric rise –
Born in Jerez de la Frontera in the southern province of Cadiz, Arrimadas
has a degree in law and business administration. The youngest of five
children, she moved to Catalonia more than a decade ago to work as a lawyer
in the private sector.
Her life changed in 2010 after she attended a rally of centrist party
Ciudadanos, founded just four years earlier to fight Catalan nationalism and
corruption.
She joined the party the following year and quickly rose through its ranks.
As the leader of the opposition in the Catalan parliament since 2015,
Arrimadas — who is fluent in Catalan and speaks English and French and
describes herself as shy — has shown her knack for communication.
She has branded her rivals’ secessionist rhetoric as “monothematic” and
their nationalism “exclusive”.
Her quick reflexes were on show during her final rally before the election
in Nou Barris, a working class Barcelona neighbourhood.
As she started to speak, people further away started banging pans in
protest against Ciudadanos.
“There are others who don’t want us to talk but we are going to talk loudly
at the ballot box,” she said to cheers and shouts of “presidenta,
presidenta!”.
Married to a Catalan former politician from the separatist camp, Xavier
Cima, Arrimadas presents herself as representative of all Catalans —
including those like herself who migrated to the wealthy region from other
parts of Spain in search of a brighter future.
– ‘Rigorous’ –
Arrimadas’s Ciudadanos won more than a million votes in Thursday’s poll,
its best ever result.
The party came out on top in terms of vote count, but was defeated in terms
of seats by the three separatist lists.
Still, Arrimadas celebrated the result not just for her party, but for the
anti-independence camp.
“The nationalists will never again be able to speak in the name of all
Catalonia. We are all Catalonia,” she said in a speech to supporters after
the result was announced.
Britain’s The Guardian newspaper likens Arrimadas to French President
Emmanuel Macron for successfully carving out a centrist path in a country
long dominated by bipartisan politics.
Former French prime minister Manuel Valls, who was born in Barcelona and
has taken an active role in the campaign against Catalan separatism, has said
he “admires” her speeches.
But her fierce defence of Spanish unity has also won her many detractors.
The former speaker of the Catalan parliament, Nuria de Gispert, once said
Arrimadas should return to Cadiz.
A popular comedy programme on the Catalan public television network,
Polonia, has portrayed her as a photogenic but vacuous Barbie doll, the
“perfect candidate” that spews out anti-separatist slogans.
“I receive daily the most spectacular hate and affection, in equal parts,”
Arrimadas said during an interview with private television Telecinco last
month.
She has been a supporter of FC Barcelona, a symbol of Catalan culture,
since she was a teenager and would cover her binders in high school with
pictures of the club’s former star player and coach Pep Guardiola, a fierce
defender of independence.
Andres Rodriguez Benot, who teaches international law at the Pablo de
Olavide University in Seville, remembers her as a “brilliant” yet “reserved”
student there.
He said when a group of students falsely accused her of forging language
certificates in order to obtain a scholarship, Arrimadas reported the
incident, and the university sanctioned the guilty students.
“She is a rigorous person who respects legality,” he said. “With her, you
can forget about the word corruption.”
BSS/AFP/RY/08:20 hrs