"Don't loosen your grip": Tardà sponsors Rufián's left-wing front

BarcelonaThe same Joan Tardà admitted it at the end of the event, when he explained that he has a "paternal relationship" with Gabriel Rufián. And not only for having sat side by side in Congress for years, but for the ideological and strategic affinity that, this Monday, they have once again evidenced. Tardà wanted his political son to sit next to him – accompanied by journalist Sergi Sol, who moderated the event – to present the book he recently published, A Republican Chronicle from Madrid (Viena Edicions), in which, besides reviewing his fifteen years in Madrid, he once again defends a left-wing front in Spain and also in Catalonia. "Don't let up. And consider the whole context, but don't let up," Tardà asked him. The call from the former Republican spokesperson in Congress was heard from the front row by two members of the ERC leadership, Oriol López and Pau Morales. The party leader, Oriol Junqueras, was not present. The Republican leadership does not buy into the proposal that Rufián has publicly put forward and that Tardà is pushing for internal debate within ERC through the internal current he leads, Àgora.

"We are a political party and we must have efficient internal operating codes, but voices like Rufián's are essential," defended the former Republican spokesperson in Madrid. He also wanted to include the figure of Junqueras, whom he supported during last year's congress: "I am proud to see how demographic studies show how, together with Junqueras, [Rufián] is one of the most respected people in the pro-independence sphere." "We have to take risks," he added. Tardà, in this regard, took the opportunity to send a message to the party leaders, including his own, Esquerra, asking them to leave their "comfort zones." Rufián took the bait and, as he did a few weeks ago from Madrid, also asked the Spanish left to "wake up": "The usual isn't coming [...] Savages are coming. Terrible social suffering is coming.

Tardà's thesis is that Catalonia and Spain are currently going through a much more complicated situation than in 2017 and that there are only two solutions: "Either we opt to be a republican nation or a tribe that in ten years National Geographic will do a report on. Either trench or open field. In the trench, you may not be killed, but there is humidity and rats." For Tardà, the only option is the "open field" and to endure, if necessary, "friendly fire." Rufián did not hesitate to attack the right and the far-right, both Spanish and Catalan: "Perhaps someone thinks that in Fraga this is over, it doesn't forgive [...] There are Catalan fascists with esteladas, they call themselves Aliança Catalana. It is part of our responsibility to tell Silvia Orriols that she is neither patriotic nor brave.

Reciprocal praise

Tardà's praise for Rufián was answered by the current Republican spokesperson. In fact, he recalled when the current ERC spokesperson in Congress was elected candidate in 2015: because Tardà refused to be number one. "If Tardà had an ounce of ego in his body, if he had been a little more asshole, he would have been President of the Generalitat," stated Rufián, who presented the former Republican spokesperson in Congress as a person who has "an excess of humanity": "He is too good for this business, at a time when it is fashionable to be a son of a bitch, like Netanyahu, Trump." The complicity between the two leaders was once again evident, but the success of their left-wing front will depend on their influence.