Her Movement Used to Fight Fascism. Now It Fights Globalism.

By Christopher Caldwell

Mr. Caldwell is the author of “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.”

A lot of politicians in Spain were disoriented this summer when more than 70,000 migrants overran the beachfront border that separates Morocco from the Spanish outpost of Ceuta. But not Sílvia Orriols. The mayor of Ripoll and a member of the Catalan regional legislature in Barcelona, she was on familiar ground: By fiercely opposing migration from North Africa, she has turned her small Catalan Alliance into one of the fastest-growing political parties in Europe, with the potential to disrupt Spanish politics on a much larger scale.

Ms. Orriols criticized the lack of an effective police presence in Ceuta and mocked the Spanish state’s priorities. She........

© The New York Times