Rufián will be the ERC candidate but will also campaign with Podemos in the State
Junqueras' party reaches the agreement at the buzzer
BarcelonaThe Gabriel Rufián serial ended this Sunday, with last-minute plot twists. As the party announced in a statement, the current leader in Madrid will head the ERC list for the general elections on November 29, and will be number one on the list for Barcelona. However, sources close to Rufián emphasize that he has reached an agreement with Podemos and that this party "will not run in Catalonia," since, in fact, it "will ask for the vote" for ERC. Furthermore, Rufián "will campaign outside of Catalonia" with Irene Montero's organization.
It is an unprecedented move for an independence party, since, beyond the alliance with other non-sovereignist left-wing parties, its lead candidate is dedicated to campaigning outside the Principality. Be that as it may, "it is a front open to anyone who wants it," according to sources close to the republican, who appeal to the Broad Front. Despite what Rufián's circle says, ERC avoids confirming a pact with Podemos.
The decision on the candidacy led by the leader from Santa Coloma will be formalized this Sunday in a meeting of the party's national executive, and it was reached at the last minute: the deadline to submit the candidacy ended this afternoon. "Over the next few days, the details of the candidacy will be specified with the celebration of the different regional congresses," the party insists. On October 20, a meeting of the different internal party bodies is scheduled to approve the candidacies for both the Senate and the Congress.
For months, Rufián has been calling for "unity" among the parties to the left of the PSOE, an amalgam that included ERC, unlike what EH Bildu, the BNG, or Endavant Andalusia have done, which, due to their sovereignism, have excluded themselves from this bloc. His acts with Podemos leader Irene Montero, Més Madrid leaders such as Emilio Delgado, or Mónica Oltra, from Compromís, already stirred an internal debate that Junqueras had always resolved making it clear that his party would go it alone: "I went to prison for Catalonia, not so that Colau could be an MP on an ERC list," he even said.
Some differences they maintain with the Comuns space and the Broad Front, despite the fact that Colau offered Rufián to exercise his "leadership" to unite the left. At this moment, Comuns sources ensure that they respect "Gabriel Rufián's decision to continue under the ERC acronym", but regret "that he has not wanted to participate in the construction of a Broad Front of the left to maximize the options to stop and defeat the right again as was already done in 2023". "We, the Comuns, remain committed and actively working for the articulation of a state-wide Broad Front that responds to the will for unity repeatedly expressed by the citizenry", they conclude.
Long trajectory
The parliamentary spokesperson in the capital of the State has seen how his group in Congress was torn apart by a division that goes back a long way and has only worsened, as already explained by ARA, with several members who do not speak to the spokesperson in the state lower house. In fact, several deputies have announced that they will abandon state politics ahead of the next elections without mentioning the native of Santa Coloma in their farewells. This is the case of Pilar Vallugera and Jordi Salvador, who has even been involved in public clashes with the leader in Congress. In this context, one of Rufián's requests was to have a group more tailored to his needs, integrated by people closer to him. However, a leader quite distant from the candidate, such as Teresa Jordà, has wanted to continue in Madrid and has presented herself to head the lists in the constituency of Girona.
It remains to be seen how the Republicans' list will turn out, which, in principle, must be ratified by the different federations. What is clear, in any case, is that Rufián will repeat as head of the formation founded in 1931 by prominent leaders such as Francesc Macià and Lluís Companys. The native of Santa Coloma was elected deputy to Congress for the first time following the elections of December 2015, after having been part of the pro-independence association of Spanish speakers Súmate, and since then he has built his career. His best electoral results came in 2019, when ERC won in the Principality. His viral interventions, as well as his connection with a part of the youth, have been strong points that have always been internally valued, although his use of Spanish in Congress, when it is possible to speak in Catalan there, has caused unease.