Rufián takes another step: he shows himself willing to lead the left front in the Spanish elections

MadridGabriel Rufián takes another step. The ERC leader in Madrid, who has become a phenomenon for the Spanish left, has shown himself "willing" this Wednesday to lead a new space for the Spanish elections of 2027. In a conference at the Club Siglo XXI in Madrid, reported by Europa Press, the Republican leader ignores the parties' refusal to join this option and insists on his path: the unity of the left in the upcoming elections. Until now, he had not opened himself to directly heading this eventual new space, which the Esquerra leadership in Barcelona completely rejects.

"If my presence can help, I am willing. Of course," Rufián 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. And what about ERC? He reiterated that his party is not oblivious to what is happening beyond Catalonia – in his opinion, the most relevant project that the left has before it now is to prevent PP and Vox from coming to power –, even though the leadership does not want to hear about a state-level alliance. Can this lead to the definitive clash between Rufián and Oriol Junqueras? The leader in Madrid assured that he will not leave Esquerra and that if they want him out, they will have to expel him.

ERC's list

Rufián has stated that he has set "conditions" for his party to repeat as the head of the list. Requirements that he has already conveyed, he said, to the republican leadership, but which he has not wanted to reveal. On how he is with Oriol Junqueras, with whom they disagree on the direction to follow, he has acknowledged that they do not agree on "everything" and that sometimes they "want to kill each other." However, he has refused to speak ill of the republican leader because it would be a "scoundrel." It is no secret in Madrid that Rufián has a very tense relationship with other deputies from Esquerra. In fact, some interpret his moves as a way to strengthen himself and have more negotiation power with Barcelona to be able to put people he trusts on the list.

Hours after Rufián's statements, the deputy general secretary of Esquerra, Oriol López, has expressed certainty that the party and the deputy will “find the formula” to continue together, has ruled out that he will leave the formation, and has reconfirmed him as the republicans' candidate for Barcelona in the Congressional elections. However, the leader, interviewed on RTVE-Catalunya, has limited the front proposed by the spokesperson in Madrid to alliances with other “sovereignist forces” and to agreements that allow people of other sensitivities or other parties to run “alongside ERC and Rufian”, but rejecting coalitions with other forces.

Els Comuns request an "urgent" meeting

Meanwhile, the Comuns have also requested an "urgent" meeting with Rufián this Thursday to find out if he has "emancipated" himself from Esquerra. The leader of the formation in Parliament, Jéssica Albiach, told TV3 that the republican's statements on Wednesday evening are a step that "he had not taken until now, neither in public nor in private" and that is why they want to discuss it. Sumar, for its part, has welcomed the Madrid deputy's proposal in a message on Bluesky. "In the challenge we have ahead, no one is superfluous. We have the obligation to build broad fronts. All steps forward are welcome," the formation wrote.

United Left opposes "unbridled egos"

On the contrary, the spokesperson for Esquerra Unida, Enrique Santiago, has censured Rufian's predisposition to lead the project he is proposing. “We are more into collective projects and we like to forge agreements with political organizations and social movements, and we believe that individual hyper-leadership and excessive egos have been a problem in left-wing politics in recent years,” he stated, in statements collected by TVE.

Santiago defended that IU is committed to “a federal left-wing project with a comprehensive country proposal that satisfies everyone and does not prioritize any specific territorial reality”. In any case, he assured that IU will study the proposal presented by the ERC spokesperson “with great appreciation”. “We are eager for someone to explain it to us, because we have asked for it on several occasions and we have not yet had the luck of someone explaining it to us,” he quipped.