Colau accuses Junqueras of 'mansplaining' to her: "I don't need him to bless me for being a deputy"

BarcelonaOriol Junqueras has been actively and passively rejecting for weeks the project of left-wing unity that ERC spokesperson in Madrid, Gabriel Rufián, is trying to promote at the state level. The republican leader, however, went a step further this Monday with a more than clarifying phrase about his position: "I went to jail for Catalunya, not because Colau is a deputy on an Esquerra list," he summarized in the framework of the presentation of the book by deputy Francesc-Marc Álvaro. A statement for which the former mayor of Barcelona has accused him of practicing mansplaining.

"He mentions me in a very gratuitous way," she reacted this morning in the framework of a discussion on Els Matins on 3Cat, where she recalled: "I have already said that I am not a candidate for anything, I do not hold any institutional office." And it was then that Colau, who currently chairs the Comuns foundation, defined Junqueras's statements as "a bit of mansplaining": "If I wanted to be a deputy, I can run with my political party and I don't need Oriol Junqueras to bless me," she concluded.

The former mayor, who recalled visiting the president of Esquerra "on several occasions" in prison, attributed her words to the "discomfort" caused by "the role Gabriel Rufián is playing", whom she defended. Colau, in fact, has advocated for any initiative aimed at a "broad and inspiring front" of the left to stop a possible far-right government in Spain. "We have to work towards this horizon," she said.

Regarding the talk on April 9 thatRufián will headline in Barcelona with Podemos MEP Irene Montero, Colau said she probably wouldn't be able to attend, but she advocated for this type of event and expressed her willingness to participate in others organized by the Republican spokesperson in Congress. Junqueras also stated on Tuesday that "very probably" he would not attend the event, just as he did not attend the one his deputy organized in Madrid. "We have many commitments on the agenda with our social and municipal reality," he argued in an interview on Telecinco.