The day that Gabriel Rufián no longer seems so nice in Madrid

BarcelonaThe facts are as follows: the Broad Front, which wanted to recreate the 2023 Sumar formula, has not been possible on a general scale, so both Irene Montero and Ada Colau will formally be candidates for the presidency of the Spanish government. Neither of them, however, is the preferred candidate for the bulk of Spanish left-wing voters, who prefer (oh, surprise) the republican Gabriel Rufián. And now let's recap.

For months, Rufián had been arguing that the left to the left of the PSOE had to explore electoral formulas to maximize votes in the face of the threat of a PP-Vox government. In reality, however, the main problem was the divorce between Podemos and Sumar: if the Spanish left was not capable of reaching an agreement, why should the different national lefts join it?

Then Rufián made a move that shook the board: dragging his party into an agreement with Podemos in Catalonia. If we are to believe his discourse, he saw it as a prior step to a broader unity with the Comuns, but the reality has been completely different. Podemos has taken advantage of the pact with Rufián to shield itself against the envelopment that Ada Colau and her team were preparing to add them to the Broad Front. For practical purposes, then, Rufián has achieved exactly the opposite effect of what he was looking for: he has made the unity of the left more difficult.

The consequence of all this is that Rufián has lost his shine as a consensus candidate for the Spanish left and has gained many enemies in Madrid, starting with Emilio Delgado and certain progressive influencers progressives. Now they don't find him so likeable anymore. But beware, this does not mean that Rufián is losing popular support, which he maintains intact, but he has lost part of that media complicity he has enjoyed until now. And this, for the offices in Calàbria that Rufián likes so little, is not exactly bad news.

The details

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