Agreements with the Spanish left

The proposal for a Spanish left-wing front that Gabriel Rufián is exploring is unlikely to succeed, because political parties are fiercely protective of their interests, their spheres of influence, their ability to place their people in positions of power, and their ultimate control over their organizations. This applies to both the right and the left, but especially to the left. Historical memory is cruel: in infinitely harsher conditions than today, when political unity should have been non-negotiable, disunity decisively contributed to the defeat of the Republic during the Civil War.

It is true that Rufián has long since begun to speak more as if he were the critical conscience of the Spanish left and to act as a bridge between the PSOE and the so-called plurinational left, rather than as the head of an independence party in Congress, but this dissonance must be resolved by him and Esquerra.

Certainly, the possibility of the Spanish right and far right (if you'll pardon the redundancy) coming to power paints a very bleak picture for Catalonia. But, from the perspective of an independence party, the first question should be what Catalonia gains from a Spanish left-wing front. The PSOE enthusiastically joined in on Article 155, and just four days ago the PSC was still saying thatNo amnesty, or anything like that", And the words of Irene Montero (Podemos) still resonate, suggesting there was "racism" in the PSOE-Junts pact regarding the transfer of immigration powers to the Generalitat. And it's best not to even mention the economic agreement or the transfer of the commuter rail network. Catalonia and the Spanish left share common adversaries, but that doesn't make Spanish left-wing parties all-round partners, given the coldness with which they observed the police and judicial repression of the largest act of radical democracy in Spain since 1939.