Irene Montero endorses teaming up with Rufián in the next general elections

BarcelonaPodemos MEP Irene Montero has said she considers it a "very good idea" to team up with ERC spokesperson Gabriel Rufián in the upcoming general elections. She expressed this view on Friday in an interview with RTVE after it was announced that the two leaders will hold an event in Barcelona on April 9 to defend left-wing unity. During the interview, Montero emphasized that this meeting should serve to give citizens "certainty" that there are people "willing to play and win the game" against the far right once general elections are called, and that Podemos will follow "this path." When asked if Sumar would have a place in this alliance, the MEP simply stated that "the parties have to discuss that."

After the left's debacle in the Castile and León elections, where Podemos and Sumar failed to win any seats in the regional parliament with disappointing results, Rufián declared: "0 seats to the left of the PSOE. Doing nothing (or doing the same old thing) is pure negligence." Faced with the proliferation of regional governments with PP and Vox majorities and the very real possibility of an alliance between these two parties to form a government after the next general elections, the Esquerra leader tirelessly calls for a united left-wing front in Spain.

He did so on February 19th in Madrid, accompanied by Emilio Delgado, a regional deputy from Más Madrid, and will do so again in Barcelona on April 9th ​​with Podemos MEP Irene Montero and the former leader of the Comuns, Xavier Domènech. Esquerra, as it did previously, has distanced itself from Rufián's proposal to create a left-wing front in Spain. Sources close to the ERC spokesperson in Congress explained to ARA that the event "is part of the necessary debate" he initiated a month ago regarding "what must be done in the face of the far right." "It's an event and nothing more than an event," these same sources insisted, disassociating it from future electoral alliances, which they emphasized are a matter for the parties to decide.

Rufián's proposal involves establishing "three or four common programmatic points" for the left and having the parties run province by province. "Each one in their own home, and antifascism, the right to self-determination, and the improvement of living conditions, for everyone," he declared solemnly at the event in Madrid, where he opened the door to forming a joint parliamentary group in the Congress of Deputies.

The proposal from the ERC spokesperson does not have the endorsement of the ERC leadership, nor does it have the support of the majority of the parties to which it appeals. Not even in the summer,when he launched the proposalNor now, but Rufián does not back down from his commitment to forming a broad left-wing and sovereignist front that tries to stop the far right with an eye on the next general elections. "ERC will be presented under the acronym ERC""This is what the Republicans' general secretary, Elisenda Alamany, emphasized at a press conference just before the event in Madrid."

Tardà's endorsement alone

Rufián was quick to respond. "What's coming won't be stopped by party labels, it will be stopped by the people [...]. To believe that fascism will stop at the border of your headquarters or your nation because it votes differently is negligent magic," retorted the Republican leader, adding: "More brains and less naiveté." Rufián's predecessor in the Madrid post, Joan Tardà, does endorse the initiative.

During the presentation of his book this Monday in Barcelona, ​​the former Republican spokesperson in Congress again defended a left-wing front in Spain and also in Catalonia. "Don't back down. And consider the whole context, but don't back down," he directly urged Rufián, who was sitting next to him. The Republican leadership doesn't buy into the proposal that Rufián has publicly launched, but Tardà is pushing for it to be debated internally within ERC through the internal faction he leads, Àgora.

Sources within Sumar have explained to ARA that they "welcome" "all conversations, actions, and gestures" aimed at "responding to the social demand to build the broadest possible space" to prevent a future PP-Vox government. Former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, who is rumored to be a possible Sumar candidate in the Spanish elections, endorses Rufián's proposal. "I think it's very positive. I'm very grateful for Rufián's intervention, and it's welcome if it helps to discuss joining forces and creating this broad democratic front to prevent the far right from bringing hate speech into government." he pointed this out in an interview a month agoUntil now, Comuns had endorsed calls for unity, but had distanced itself from Rufián's proposal with a twofold argument: first, that it does not have the backing of ERC; and second,which added to the confusionAt a time when, they argue, a viable option must be offered to voters.

From the Socialist ranks, the First Vice President of the Spanish government, María Jesús Montero, has maintained that the "articulation" of the PSOE's left wing is "important" and has invited the parties to "be able to capitalize as much as possible on people who don't want to vote for the PSOE, but are left-wing." "It's not bad news if it means that Sumar and the other left-wing formations are also under this umbrella," she concluded at an event organized by RTVE and EFE.

Nor have the other sovereignist or pro-independence left-wing parties in the State welcomed Rufián's proposal with open arms. The CUP, which is not running in the Spanish elections, has rejected forming a coalition for the Catalan elections. And Bildu and the BNG, two of the parties with which ERC is running in the European elections, believe that the ERC spokesperson's initiative is not currently on the table, nor is it the right time to address it, as Compromís has also made clear.