Rufián contradicts ERC and states that he is working for a unitary candidacy with Comuns

BarcelonaAfter announcing that Gabriel Rufián will be their candidate in the next general election, ERC held a press conference this Tuesday to rule out any collaboration with state-wide left-wing parties that goes beyond incorporating members of Podemos into their lists. In fact, the party spokesperson, Isaac Albert, avoided answering the Comuns' criticism regarding the alliance with the purple party and once again shut the door on being part of the state-wide Broad Front coalition currently being negotiated by Sumar, Comuns, Esquerra Unida, and Més Madrid. However, the republican leader's words were contradicted by Rufián himself in a post on X: "ERC and Comuns must talk, listen to each other, and understand each other to unblock the situation. Beyond vetoes and hatreds that matter to no one. And I am on that. And I will do it until the end." "What cannot be is that the way to respond to the extreme right is to dilute the ERC acronym. ERC will run in Catalonia as ERC," replied Albert at the press conference.

Gabriel Rufián once again verbalized this Tuesday what he has been defending for months: a global agreement between all state-wide and sovereignist left-wing parties that serves to stop the extreme right. A thesis that his party, ERC, rejects. However, for Rufián to continue being their candidate for the general election, both parties reached an agreement that involves an alliance with Podemos so that ERC incorporates members of the purple party into ERC's lists and, in exchange, they do not run in Catalonia. Furthermore, republicans and the purple party also agreed that Rufián and Montero would hold joint events in Barcelona and Madrid – Isaac Albert specified that ERC will open and close the campaign in Catalonia, but he did not detail which events they will hold together –. Rufián, however, is not satisfied. "It makes no sense to demand Broad Fronts for Madrid and not want them for Catalonia," he said in the same post. In fact, this Monday he already published a message to the same effect in which he assured that he would continue working for an alliance of all the left-wing parties "until the end".

Be that as it may, this week ERC must finalize all candidacies for the general elections, both for the Congress and the Senate. And this involves bringing together the candidates that emerge from the different territorial assemblies and placing them on the different lists. Rufián will head the list for Barcelona, where deputy Jordi Albert –the name that the leadership had proposed as a plan B for Rufián– will also be present, along with the rest of the names that emerge from the territorial assemblies, in some of which the leadership is promoting names trusted by Rufián. It is in this candidacy for Barcelona and also in that of Tarragona where there will be people from Podemos –there will not be any in Girona and Lleida–, although Albert has assured that Podemos has not demanded that they be in electable positions.

Internal criticism over the agreement with Podemos

The agreement between ERC and Podemos has not pleased everyone among the Republicans. Former minister Dolors Bassa voiced the criticisms, stating in an interview with TV3 that she finds it hard "to understand that Podemos can be on the ERC list and that Rufián campaigns outside of Catalonia". In fact, she regretted that the pact with the purple party was not consulted with the ERC base and that the party has placed itself, in her view, "at the service" of Rufián, and not the other way around. Albert said that an internal consultation was not necessary because ERC has not signed any coalition with Podemos. "The lists will indeed be voted on by an executive body and at the national council," he added.

Bassa defended that one can vote like Podemos on social issues, but she reclaimed the pro-independence character of Esquerra, and insisted: "That they go together is hard for me to understand". In this sense, Isaac Albert defended that the framework of the alliance with Podemos is the "collaboration to stop the extreme right" and assured that Podemos defends the right to decide. Bassa, however, attributed the decision to Podemos' "electoral calculations" and the desire for Rufián to remain "calm" with what he has been "preaching" in recent months. In the last few hours, there are militants who have made it public through X that they were unsubscribing from the party following this agreement with Podemos.

Podem's contacts with the Broad Front

In parallel, with three days left until the deadline for submitting coalitions for the Spanish elections, the parties to the left of the PSOE are resisting giving up on unity. The different parties are maintaining the goal after a long weekend of cross-announcements, with the Rufián-Podem agreement, on one hand, and the choice of Ada Colau as the Broad Front's presidential candidate, on the other, running for Barcelona. This Tuesday the coalition confirmed Emilio Delgado as a candidate in Madrid after Mónica García resigned from it. The Podem candidate, Irene Montero, one of the most belligerent voices in the tug-of-war between the different spaces of the Spanish left, has admitted that "conversations" remain open with the Broad Front. "Yes, there are always conversations," she said in statements to Cadena SER. And she added: "There are few days left, and the most important thing is that we take care of things and try to ensure they finally reach a successful conclusion.

Montero, who has avoided polemics with the Broad Front parties, has invited these parties to join the "collaboration framework" closed with ERC. "Of course it is open to them [...]. We must continue working so that many more people are there and so that the candidacy represents this majority of the left that wants the price of rent and the cost of living to go down." "We will continue talking and trying all forms of collaboration," she later said on TVE.

The Podem candidate made these statements after the coordinator of the Sumar Movement, Verónica Barbero, stated on Telecinco that they trust in unity despite Rufián's move – whom she criticized for his "change of opinion" when sealing an alliance with Podem. "The Broad Front is the unity of the left, and obviously all political organizations that want to are invited to participate, including Podem," she said. And she was even clearer: "We want Podem to be part of it, because we understand that what the public expects is that we can revalidate a coalition government." The 'lilacs', for now, rule out integrating themselves into the candidacy around Sumar.

Friday, the deadline

Reproaches and cross-criticism do not help in the negotiations, especially if they are against the clock, because on the 16th, this Friday, the deadline to present coalitions for the elections ends. Wednesday and Thursday the primaries to choose candidates that Podemos has decided to move forward with despite the disagreement expressed by the Broad Front remain. These are primaries open to all citizens, and in which one can vote through thePrimarias.info website.