Antoni Bassas' analysis: "Rufián, from 'enfant terrible' to critical conscience of the Spanish left"
For Esquerra, this isn't consistent, but for Rufián, it is. Rufián has been speaking in Congress for some time as if he were the moral conscience of the Spanish left. He started out playing the role of the pro-independence 'enfant terrible' and now he's the deputy warning the PSOE, the state party, that the deep state is after them and pushing them toward policies for the people, not the Ibex.
Today marks two years since Pedro Sánchez lost the elections but ended up governing thanks to the fluke of the seven Junts deputies. Losing but ultimately winning is something the PP hasn't forgiven Sánchez for, having already won a vote of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy in 2018. Losing and governing, winning a vote of no confidence, are two things that have never happened before.
Two years later, Sánchez's government is weak, and it is holding up mainly because no one wants to go along with the PP, because of Vox. Yesterday, the The Spanish government lost the vote on the energy decree With the dissenting votes of the PP and Podemos, Junts and Vox, UPN and the BNG... It's clear, therefore, that many different people had a score to settle. When this happens, it's because the government still believes it can do its thing, and the parties that keep it alive punish it by rationing their trust. Sánchez has failed to pass budgets for either 2024 or this year, 2025, and the 2026 budget looks bad, because to fulfill the diverse promises of the various groups that invested in him as president, he needs the votes of everyone, Ábalos included, and the sudoku doesn't work. Sánchez has reached the middle of his term dragging his parliamentary weakness, further damaged by the fact that the party's number three, Santos Cerdán, is in pretrial detention for alleged corruption. Two more years of this paralysis could be unbearable for everyone. Of course, the alternative is even worse.
Precisely, the Cerdán case provoked a plenary session of Parliament in which the president Isla distanced himself from any connection with the corruption uncovered in the PSOE.It was a quiet full house for the president, in which he only received a textbook yellow card: if the Cerdán case ends up affecting him, ERC and the Comuns could withdraw their support.
However, The political note of the day was given by Gabriel RufiánThe Leftist deputy in Congress launched a trial balloon: in the 2027 Spanish elections (or before), forming a common plurinational left-wing front. Capella established the party's official position: a peripheral front "is not on the table." Rufián's proposal would mean that an independence party would be presented on the same ballot as other parties in the rest of the country. Rufián is indeed one. Regardless of whether his tone is liked or not, Rufián has long spoken in Congress as if he were the moral conscience of the Spanish left. He is a deputy who warns the PSOE, the state party, that the deep state is after it and is pushing it toward policies for the people and not for the Ibex. There have been days when his discourse seemed like that of Sumar or Podemos. His disengagement has not been well received.
