Colau wants Rufián by her side to unite the Broad Front

BarcelonaAda Colau is not giving up on her crusade to unite the left at the national level. The former mayor of Barcelona has once again urged Gabriel Rufián, who has a good relationship with Podemos, to join the Broad Front left-wing coalition and to use "his leadership" to help her include the various formations to the left of the PSOE. In an interview on La Sexta, Colau considers that the republican spokesperson is a key actor to "meet the citizenry's demand": a single proposal for the upcoming Spanish elections on November 29th.

The statements made by the former mayor of the Catalan capital this Friday are another gesture of pressure on the Podemos space, led by Irene Montero. For days, Colau has conditioned her involvement in the coalition on the entry of the purple party, which is currently far from an understanding with the Broad Front. Montero's group continues to bet on holding primaries to choose a presidential candidate –already open and which can be voted on October 14th and 15th– while the four major formations that make up the Broad Front coalition –Comuns, Esquerra Unida, Sumar, and Més Madrid– are reluctant.

However, especially the Comuns and Esquerra Unida were also not pleased that, for example, Més Madrid issued a statement this Wednesday in which it publicly advocated for Colau as a presidential candidate and, in return, shored up its main visible face, Minister Mónica García, as the head of the list in the Spanish capital. This move by Més Madrid, which maintains a tense relationship with Podemos, has generated unease among the rest of the coalition's partners. On one hand, because they prefer that discussions take place behind closed doors and not through the media. And, on the other, because it intends to close the lists before reaching a global agreement. Furthermore, this also hinders the approach to Podemos, which is assumed would only enter –and concede on the fact of not holding primaries– the Broad Front in exchange for a prominent place on the list for Madrid.

After Més Madrid, it was Moviment Sumar that spoke out and made its move publicly. In a statement, in which it announced that Verónica Barbero will be its candidate to be included in the coalition, the organization called for "discretion" and "generosity" to build a "project where everyone fits". The goal, it emphasizes, is to have a "sufficient majority" to "re-edit the coalition government" and "take it further". And although it does not refer directly to Podemos, it throws a dart at the purple party, which has decided to keep the primaries open to the entire space to configure the candidacy: "We will not comment on methods or candidates or anything other than reaching agreements and presenting our country with a Broad Front proposal," say those from Sumar.

The PSOE adds pressure

The PSOE is determined to try to take advantage of the social outcry for the right to housing to repeat a progressive majority after the general elections. Although the bulk of the polls do not depict it, the messages from the Spanish government appeal to the spirit of a comeback. "The PSOE will be the leading force on November 29, I am absolutely convinced of it," stated Minister Óscar Puente this morning in statements to SER. And aware that the hypothetical socialist victory –which only the CIS grants– would by no means guarantee continuity in government, he has called for unity among the parties to the left of the PSOE, in the midst of negotiations surrounding the Broad Front: "The way things are going, the risks that exist and the problems that must be faced, reach an agreement, create a candidacy that gathers the vote of the people who do not want to vote for the PSOE,” he said.

The start of the pre-campaign, marked in recent hours by the death of Maricarmen Abascal, shows that these will be very polarized elections between the right and the left. Without going any further, President Pedro Sánchez himself said in an interview with Eldiario.es that it is "time for Parliament to look more like the street and not like those who live in penthouses", in reference to the PP and the controversy surrounding Isabel Díaz Ayuso's properties.

The Popular Party spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, rushed to respond to him via X: "Parliament looks like the street. The one it does not look like is you". "The one who does not represent the street is Pedro Sánchez", reacted the secretary general of the Popular Party, Miguel Tellado, in a press conference. Be that as it may, Sánchez has insisted that a "broader" progressive majority is needed to "intervene" in the housing market, and has said that the "clamor" of the street demands it. It is a call to voters that also adds pressure to the parties of the alternative left to the socialists.