The ERC militancy in Igualada says no to the coalition with the CUP and the Comuns

BarcelonaSetback for ERC's membership in Igualada to the proposal of a coalition with the CUP and Comuns for next year's municipal elections. The assembly that the party held on Thursday night rejected the proposal by a narrow margin: 34 votes against, 31 in favor, and 2 abstentions, as reported by Nació Digital and confirmed by ARA. This Monday, the municipal groups of ERC, the CUP, and Comuns made a pre-agreement public to run jointly with the aim of ousting the current mayor from Junts per Igualada, Marc Castells. However, after the decision of ERC's membership, this pact now remains in limbo.

The national leadership of the Republicans had not officially positioned itself on this coalition because it wanted to give "local autonomy". However, some sources indicated that they did not look favorably upon the pact. In fact, the Republican leadership has rejected the proposal launched by Gabriel Rufián to form a left-wing front across the entire State for the upcoming Spanish elections. The agreement for a coalition in Igualada involved exploring at the municipal level a left-wing front like the one proposed by the Republican spokesperson in Madrid — and which is also endorsed by former deputy Joan Tardà, who wants to open this debate within ERC—, but with the Republican membership's no, the coalition will not see the light of day. The national secretariat of the CUP had also rejected the coalition.

As detailed by the promoters of the agreement on Monday, Esquerra was the party responsible for proposing the mayoral candidate, while the spokesperson for the group would be designated by the CUP members. Both forces obtained three councilors in the previous elections, but the Republicans surpassed the anti-capitalists by 400 votes, despite losing two councilors. The pre-agreement also established that the first seven positions on the list would be divided equally between ERC and the CUP – with three members each – and that there would be one for Comuns, which in the past elections was left out of the city council with less than 2% of the votes. The pact also provided for running under the name Ara Igualada — which is also the name of the citizen platform that made public a manifesto where this union of left-wing forces in a single list was precisely demanded — and under the electoral brand with which ERC would compete.