Ada Colau activates electoral mode

BarcelonaThe Spanish legislature is running out and the left is not prepared. Whether in the summer, when four years will have passed since the last elections, or at the end of November in case Pedro Sánchez presses the electoral button this Monday, Comuns, Sumar, IU and Més Madrid have not yet defined the structure or the candidate. The failure of the housing decrees has shaken the political board and this Saturday Ada Colau activated the electoral mode with an urgent call. "It is the moment for great alliances. The citizenry would not understand if everyone went their own way," she exclaimed at the inauguration of a conference of the School of Political Imagination organized by the Sentit Comú Foundation, which is presided over by Colau herself.

Who should lead it? This is one of the big questions. As ARA published a few days ago, Colau does not rule out taking a step forward, although this Saturday she emphasized that "it should not be one, but many faces that take the lead." "Let's stop the speculators, the rentiers, and the political arm that protects them with a massive political alliance," she insisted in a message typical of an election campaign. The failure of the two housing decrees, which were rejected this Friday by the PP, Vox, and Junts, must be the spark to achieve this, according to Colau.

For some time now, the parties that ran four years ago under the umbrella of Sumar have been working on the candidacy, but they are advancing slowly. The name of Colau is being mentioned to lead the new project, but also that of the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, or that of the Minister of Health, Mónica García. The person who rejected this responsibility months ago was the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, and, obviously, the person who had led the space until now, the Vice President of the Spanish government, Yolanda Díaz.

Colau is in favor of also including Podemos—which has already chosen Irene Montero as its candidate—and even going further, although the Gabriel Rufián operation does not seem viable at this moment. "We must create the great political alliance for the right to housing to stop the great alliance of speculators," defended the former mayor of Barcelona, who also encourages incorporating other struggles: "Not only tenants, small property owners, those with mortgages, but also feminists, the LGBTI struggle, racialized people...", she described. And to go beyond Catalonia and the State, because the threat, she stressed, is global. Wearing a red t-shirt with the face of a young Lula da Silva, she pointed to this Sunday's elections in Brazil as the first stop to combat "fascism".

Social mobilization, starting with the Tenants' Union and the fight for the right to housing, must be the spearhead of it all. "The very broad social mobilization made the PSOE move," she celebrated. Colau and, before her, MEP Jaume Asens have claimed the encampments in Barcelona's Plaça Catalunya and Madrid's Puerta del Sol as a "hope" for millions of people. Colau has also called for a general strike and defined the PP, Vox, and Junts as "the worst of politics," the parties that "are there to obey whoever gives them money and brings them closer to power," above the rights of the citizens, even those of their own voters. "We will not forget yesterday. The deputies of Junts, Vox, and the PP will be responsible for every eviction that takes place from today on. Each eviction will bear the names and surnames of these deputies," she concluded.