Who will accompany Rufián on the ERC list?

BarcelonaThe leadership of Esquerra Republicana has already decided on the traveling companions that Gabriel Rufián will have in the next Spanish elections. The party's executive has shored up Mireia Ingla, Jordi Albert, and Laura Pelay as numbers two, three, and four in the Barcelona constituency, respectively, all three of whom have the utmost confidence of the party president, Oriol Junqueras. "Time proves us right: national candidacies, rooted in the territory, are the ones with the most strength to stop Spanish neo-fascism," asserted the ERC spokesperson, Isaac Albert, in a statement issued by the party this Wednesday.

The lists, which will have to be validated by the National Council, arrive at a moment of tension between Rufián and the republican leadership, even though both parties have renewed their confidence ahead of the November 29th elections. Although Junqueras refuses to enter into a left-wing coalition at the state level, such as the Front Ampli –led by Ada Colau–, Rufián insists that he is negotiating to achieve it. In any case, ERC has already agreed with Podemos to incorporate names from the purple party into its lists.

The three names chosen by the republican leadership are close to Junqueras himself. Ingla, former mayor of Sant Cugat del Vallès, gave him explicit support at the last ERC congress and was in charge of the internal investigation into the false flag posters against the Maragalls. As for Jordi Albert, who was the plan B that the republican leadership was preparing if in the end Rufián did not end up being the candidate, he has been a councilor in the opposition at the Sant Andreu de la Barca City Council, and is the deputy spokesperson for the ERC parliamentary group in Parliament. Laura Pelay is a member of the republican party's executive, a councilor at the Vilafranca del Penedès City Council, an associate professor in political science at the University of Barcelona, and a tutor for the degree in labor relations at the Open University of Catalonia. The rest of the names on the list will be made known soon, among which there will be some coming from Podemos, both in Barcelona and Tarragona.

In this way, the ERC leadership has confirmed the renewal of the list for the Barcelona constituency. Three years ago, the number 2 was the former minister Teresa Jordà, from the sector critical of Junqueras, who now aspires to be number 1 for Girona and face the officialist candidate, Etna Estrems. The number 3 was the journalist Francesc-Marc Álvaro, who on November 29th will be on the republican list for the Senate; and the number 4 was Pilar Vallugera, who has decided to leave institutional politics. The relationship between Rufián and Jordà, Álvaro, and Vallugera was practically non-existent and, in fact, the republican spokesperson had requested to configure a list without these names and add some that were more aligned with him. He will have to settle for people very close to Junqueras.

In the rest of the constituencies of the Principality, the deputy Inés Granollers will repeat as head of the list in Lleida, the former deputy Norma Pujol will be the candidate in Tarragona, and there will be primaries between the deputies Teresa Jordà and Etna Estrems in Girona.