Elisenda Alamany, the mayoral candidate for Esquerra Republicana (ERC), has ignited a fierce political debate after pledging that her first act as mayor would be to withdraw licences for 24-hour supermarkets. While the proposal aims to protect Barcelona’s struggling neighbourhood shops, her framing of the issue has drawn sharp criticism for allegedly echoing the rhetoric of the far-right.

In a promotional video, Alamany stated she would halt authorisations for “all these establishments that kill the shops in our neighbourhoods.” This statement taps into a growing anxiety over Barcelona’s changing retail landscape, where rising rents and competition increasingly force historic businesses to close.

This is not a new issue for ERC. The party previously pushed a successful motion through Barcelona’s City Council, limiting the spread of 24-hour convenience stores and increasing inspections. Official figures reveal over 2,700 infractions in these establishments over a two-year period, contrasting with around 700 new licences for small supermarkets granted between 2020 and 2024.

The ‘Great Replacement’ Controversy

The core of the controversy stems from Alamany’s use of the term “great replacement” to describe the disappearance of traditional commerce. She claimed her use of the phrase, which is central to a far-right conspiracy theory alleging a plot to replace Europe’s white population, was sarcastic and intended to reframe the debate around commercial, not demographic, change.

However, critics immediately condemned the move. An analysis published in VilaWeb argued that far from subverting the concept, Alamany was “participating in the state of mind that underpins it.” The author, Ot Bou, contended that the real “killers” of local shops like the Santa Clara bakery or the Ona bookshop in Gràcia were not immigrant-run convenience stores, but “the speculators who have thrown them out of their premises and the politicians who have allowed it.”

Across the political spectrum, opponents echoed this sentiment, accusing Alamany of scapegoating a vulnerable population while deflecting from systemic issues like property speculation and insufficient public policy.

A Broader Political Shift?

Some commentators see this incident as part of a wider trend: mainstream pro-independence parties are adapting their discourse in response to the far-right Aliança Catalana (Catalan Alliance)’s rise. The VilaWeb analysis, for example, draws a parallel between Alamany’s comments and Junts (Together for Catalonia)’s recent focus on multi-recidivism in crime, which often links delinquency with immigration in the public consciousness.

“They are interposed objects so that everyone interprets that they are talking about something else without having to mention it explicitly,” Bou wrote, suggesting that both crime and convenience stores are being used as proxies to discuss immigration.

The argument is that by adopting tougher, more populist language, these parties are legitimising the framework set by the far-right, inadvertently fuelling the very movements they seek to counter. Critics maintain that this political strategy shifts responsibility away from those in power and onto marginalised groups, transforming a debate about governance and economic policy into one about identity and fear.

As Barcelona heads towards municipal elections, the debate highlights a central tension in the city’s politics: how to protect its unique neighbourhood character and support local businesses without resorting to divisive language that critics say risks fracturing the city’s social fabric.