ERC, CUP and Comuns explore the Rufián way in Igualada

BarcelonaThe proposal by ERC spokesperson Gabriel Rufián to form a broad left-wing and sovereignist front in the Spanish elections does not have the backing of the ERC leadership, which has distanced itself from it from the outset, and he can only boast of having his fellow traveler Joan Tardà by his side. But at the municipal level, his proposal is well received by the republican leadership, especially if the parties run under their electoral umbrella. This is what will happen in Igualada. The municipal groups of ERC, the CUP and Comuns made public this Monday a pre-agreement to run jointly in the municipal elections of 2027.

In a press conference before the City Council, the three parties justified the creation of a transversal candidacy to foster "a change" in the city, as requested by the citizen movement Ara Igualada, which published a manifesto calling precisely for this union of forces in a single list to build an alternative after four consecutive terms governed by CiU and Junts per Igualada, with Marc Castells at the helm, who in the last elections was one councilor short of an absolute majority.

As detailed, the republicans will be responsible for proposing the mayoral candidate, while the spokesperson for the group will be designated by the CUP members. Both parties won three councilors in the previous elections, but the republicans surpassed the anticapitalists by 400 votes, despite losing two councilors. The pre-agreement establishes that the first seven places on the list will be divided equally between ERC and the CUP —with three members each— and one for Comuns, which in the past elections did not make it into the council with less than 2% of the votes.

The pre-agreement includes running under the name Ara Igualada, the name of the citizen platform, and under the electoral brand with which ERC runs, and with a "shared program and a common image" and the commitment to form a "progressive, republican and transformative government." The ERC spokesperson, Enric Conill, admitted that it has been reached "as a result of a citizen spark that needed to be responded to." "We have been working separately for many years on very similar policies, and citizens will understand that it makes a lot of sense now to work together from the outset," he defended without confirming if he will be proposed as the head of the list. From Comuns Igualada, its spokesperson Rafa Moya explained that "they like the project and believe it is good for the city."

Rejection by the CUP

The unitary candidacy has the support of ERC and Comuns, but not of the national leadership of the CUP. Sources from the independentist formation make it clear that they only contemplate local assemblies presenting themselves under the siglas of their formation. "The CUP does not endorse our candidacies forming coalitions with ERC or others, nor going under their umbrella" they point out. In fact, last week, the leadership of the cupaires already distanced themselves from the unitary candidacy between ERC and the CUP in Malgrat de Mar. In this town in Maresme, the republicans achieved three councilors, while the CUP, one, in an election where the PSC won with 5 representatives and, in second place, Junts came with 4. Now both forces want this joint candidacy to be "municipalist, leftist and open, which will be a boost for the town".

Also last week, the CUP leadership disavowed the alliance with Junts in Tàrrega to exclude ERC, which governed with the PSC, from the municipal government. The national secretariat denounced that the decision of the cupaires from the capital of Urgell went against their guidelines of not giving mayoralties to either Junts or the PSC and that they had already been notified previously.