With what desire will Rufián do the campaign now?
Junqueras could not mislead the voters with forced flexibilities, because politics requires clear messages. What Rufián wanted was new, complicated and in a Spanish key
The unity of the left-wing parties to the left of the PSOE will not happen.
According to what Gabriel Rufián himself explained this morning on RAC1, he has not succeeded in his plans to achieve a unitary candidacy in Spain. He said: "I have failed, we have failed [...]. It is very likely that it will not happen". He revealed that yesterday he was about to step aside, but in the end he was "stopped". He even apologized to the people for having thought that, starting from his electoral "strength", he could "drag" the apparatus of his party and the rest of the state left-wing formations.
So, if there is nothing new, Gabriel Rufián and Ada Colau will compete for the vote on Sunday, November 29. What did not go well? At this point, it became very clear that they agreed on the ideas but not on the positions. And that Rufián was asking Esquerra for a subordination to a shared strategy with other groups that the majority of the party did not share. That Esquerra is jealous of its brand, that it does not want to be placed to the left of the PSOE but rather be the Catalan national left instead of the PSC, and that Junqueras, who will run as a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, could not now confuse the voters with flexibilities that can create doubts in a matter like politics, which demands clear messages. What Rufián wanted was newer, more complicated, and, above all, it was done in a Spanish key. Now he knows that, if he wants to play on the board of Spanish politics, his party has limits that not even he, a politician so popular and so well-regarded, is allowed to cross. It remains to be seen, after this failure, with what enthusiasm he will campaign now.
And finally, when Pedro Sánchez called for elections, he must have also taken into account that he was putting a lot of pressure on the fragmented left to reach an agreement, and although he needs them to form a parliamentary majority, he can now aspire to sweep up what we call the useful vote of those who will vote thinking only about stopping a government or a majority of the PP and Vox.
It seems, then, that this is how the week will end, in which the PP has entangled itself with pensions, in another unforced error of its own when you have such a large electoral base of pensioners, and in the end Feijóo had to come out to say that pensions will not be touched and will be revalued according to the CPI. How long this pre-campaign will feel for them.
Good morning.
