Rufián dismisses leading the left-wing front in Spain: "I want to do it in Catalonia"

Valencia"I want to lead a left-wing front in Catalonia, with ERC as the driving force.” Gabriel Rufián has gone back on the words he uttered a few weeks ago in Madrid, in which he showed himself willing to lead the left-wing front he proposes at a state level: "If my presence can help, I am willing. Of course", he declared, although he made it clear that it must be the progressive parties as a whole that agree on the visible face of the project". From Valencia, he has defended leading this front, but only in Catalonia. In this way, the spokesperson for ERC in Congress has taken a further step in defending the great progressive alliance at an event in Valencia with the former Valencian vice-president and candidate for Compromís for the Valencia City Council, Mónica Oltra. In fact, the Republican leader has added a new ally to his proposal to the point that Oltra has revealed that the pact with Sumar, Podem, Esquerra Unida and Compromís is already a reality in the city of Valencia and "almost" in the Valencian Country.

Rufián maintains his proposal for a left-wing front despite the rejection of the Republican leadership. In fact, the spokesperson has threatened not to run again as an ERC candidate if the leadership does not accept his conditions: surrounding himself with a team he trusts and having more decision-making power in Madrid. "Gabriel says what everyone thinks and no one dares to say", defended Oltra, who highlighted that the Catalan politician's leadership has "a personal cost". Grateful for the words of support, Rufián has reaffirmed his commitment "even if it costs him his position" and "even if it is not possible due to the party leaderships", he emphasized. Rufián, in this regard, has taken another step in concretizing this left-wing front and has proposed holding primaries in all provinces: "And if the left does not agree: let's have primaries, let's vote and let's rally around the best".

In his particular tour throughout the State, in Madrid Rufián was accompanied by the spokesperson for Més Madrid, Emilio Delgado; and in Barcelona, by Podem MEP Irene Montero. This Friday in Valencia, he has had the warmth, in addition to Oltra, of the regional representatives of Podem, Esquerra Unida, Compromís, Sumar and Esquerra Republicana. Also of the more than a thousand people who have filled the city's Capçalera park, who have expressed their wish for Rufián to be the future "president" of the Spanish government. When the rally ended, they filled the stage to take photos with them to the point that the organizers of the event feared for the safety of the attendees.

Mazón, "psychopath and murderer"

Rufián has been very clear about his audience present in Valencia, but especially in the State – through its broadcast via the internet – and has intervened in large part in Spanish. This is not the case for Oltra, who has only spoken in Catalan. For the Valencian public, Rufián has expressly reserved his references to the "dana" and former president Carlos Mazón. Specifically, he has asked Oltra to "help" to "put in prison" a politician he has defined as a "psychopath and murderer." "It is quite psychopathic to present yourself at the funeral of people who have died because you were not where you should have been," he concluded.

In the republican's opinion, the left needs to join forces to prevent PP and Vox from coming to power. Therefore, he argues that the best option is to form an electoral alliance between the state progressive forces and the sovereignist forces, considering that in each province the confluence of the left-wing formation with the most traction should be presented or led. With this objective, he has urged to "leave behind and set aside our minimal and miserable differences of the past and present" to achieve "common fronts." "If Valencia does not manage to overturn or reverse what seems inevitable, surely we do not deserve anything more," he declared.

Read Gramsci?

The Catalan politician has also not shied away from some of his latest controversies, and in reference to his much-commented "I prefer to fill TikTok than libraries", today he added that citizens with an exhausting day of work cannot be expected to "read [the Italian communist reference] Gramsci".

Today's has been the first rally of Mónica Oltra since on March 28 the former Valencian vice-president announced her intention to return to the political front line to run for mayor of the city of Valencia in the next municipal elections. In fact, the event has had an important symbolic weight in almost coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the last rally she held four years ago shortly before resigning due to her indictment in the case investigating the alleged cover-up of sexual abuse committed by her ex-husband to a supervised minor. Today she became emotional about this and appealed for fraternity. "We will build nothing from anger, but from empathy, love for the other, from class consciousness and from compassion, even from forgiveness," she concluded.