Rufián still works to unite ERC with the state lefts: "I will try until the end"

BarcelonaThe battle of Gabriel Rufián to unite the Spanish left will still have chapters to be written. Despite the pact reached on Sunday that makes him the head of the list for ERC with an understanding with Podemos, which allows him to campaign across Spain, the spokesperson in Madrid has stepped forward to ensure that he is still working to unite Oriol Junqueras' organization with the progressive parties of the State. "I will try until the end," he said on X.

After Rufián and the national republican leadership announced a pact that allows the politician from Santa Coloma de Gramenet to be placed once again as the party's head of the list for the general elections, everything has changed. The understanding involved the collaboration of Podemos and it was this Monday that the agreement was made official between the Catalan group and the purple party with a joint statement: Podemos will contribute to the ERC candidacy in Catalonia and Rufián will campaign with Irene Montero acting as a "team" with the goal of "confronting reactionism," just as sources from the republican leadership had already confirmed since this Sunday. At the same time, republican sources are already specifying that there will be people from Montero's party on the lists as independents. This has caused a stir, as the Comuns have labeled the republican politician a "disappointment" and have accused him of "doing everything possible to divide" the left in the State. Faced with this, Rufián has published a forceful tweet.

Although Rufián emphasizes that he does not want to "contribute to a Turkish soap opera" and that he wants to refrain from "criticizing" anyone, even though he might "want to," he has pointed out that he will try to ensure there is "a real collaboration between the sovereignist and Spanish lefts" because this was never just "changing the name of something that already existed," making an implicit reference to Sumar and the new name of Broad Front. "Everything that is published or said differently from this is simply a lie. There is time," he sentenced. A new move that once again contradicts the direction of Junqueras' leadership.

It is true that the Comuns' statement is harsh: "We will run in the general elections in Catalonia as we have always done. We were the second most voted force in the 2023 general elections," they recalled. In this line, they said that Rufián "came to unify the left and is doing everything possible to divide it." They do believe, however, that Ada Colau could be "the leadership that can help push and make a unitary Broad Front possible."

Be that as it may, what has Junqueras conceded and what has Rufián conceded to reach the understanding currently on the table?

There is no coalition of the left

Rufián went on a tour with various left-wing leaders across the State to advocate for a kind of popular front like the one in 1936. The moment is, according to his diagnosis, exceptional enough for all the lefts to unite to try to stop the arrival of the PP and Vox at the Moncloa. In an event in Barcelona with the leader of Podemos, Irene Montero, he clearly defended the unity of the sovereignist left with the Spanish one: "We have to talk, we have to get together, what United We Can did a few years ago was extraordinary, why can't it be repeated? Why can't ERC inspire this Spanish left? If not, they will kill us separately," said the republican spokesperson at the time.

This is not the project that Rufián has finally brought to the table of ERC. The party has agreed to limit the understanding to Podemos, but not in the form of a coalition. According to the joint statement, Podemos will contribute to the Esquerra candidacy in Catalonia, while Rufián and Montero will share campaign events. The organizations argue that this means "joining forces, with our own voice and shared goals." Thus, they summarize that "collaboration between left-wing forces to stop the extreme right, defend the country and protect the rights of the citizenry is essential." Meanwhile, the Broad Front, on which various left-wing forces are working and which could end up being led by Ada Colau, remains a separate initiative with which ERC will compete at the polls.

Rufián has defended a broader understanding between the lefts, but the republicans' statement does not specify whether the collaboration with Podemos could be extended to other forces. For the moment, the agreement does not foresee that ERC will gather under its acronym the entire left of the State. Junqueras had already warned that "he had not gone to prison so that Ada Colau could be an ERC candidate".

Trusted team

In the negotiations, Rufián had made a request that highlights the internal struggle within the parliamentary group in Madrid: he demanded a trusted team. That is, that the candidates for Congress and the members in starting positions should be close to him. ERC has warned him that they cannot guarantee this and that it will have to be decided by the party's federations, but it is certainly true that numerous critics of Rufián have resigned or have been relocated. For example, Jordi Salvador and Pilar Vallugera are leaving the lower house, while Francesc-Marc Álvaro –who is indeed a Junquerista but distant from the one from Santa Coloma– will head the list for the Senate. There are also other names that will make up the list that Rufián has put on the table and which the party has committed to support. However, in Girona, for example, Teresa Jordà, very distant from Rufián, will battle it out with Etna Estrems to be the lead candidate in the constituency.

Greater influence on decisions in Madrid

It has not transpired how they resolved another of the points of conflict: Rufián was asking to have more autonomy and influence in all the decisions that have to do with the Congress of Deputies and the activity in Madrid. It is one of the unknowns that will need to be resolved, given that the republican leadership has not yet clarified whether this demand will materialize in any way. Be that as it may, the party will not renounce having the final say on relevant decisions in Madrid.

Campaign in Spain

Rufián is the most coveted left-wing leader in the State and he is aware of the repercussions his messages and interventions have. Although he has never publicly shown a desire to lead the state's left-wing parties, he has been giving hints that he wanted to get involved in the project. So one of the issues he has achieved in the negotiation with ERC is that the party accepts that he also campaigns in Spain. Right now sharing space at least with Podemos, a party that this same legislature has opposed the singular financing of Catalonia –and also the pact for the new model promoted by ERC and the PSOE– and the transfer of powers on immigration. According to the joint statement made public this Monday, Rufián and Irene Montero will team up at campaign events for the general elections on November 29. This morning the former leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, stressed in an interview on RNE that Rufián will be able to act as a "symbolic reference" in the State and has stated that an agreement between the rest of the state's left-wing parties is still possible.