Parliamentary boycott and the destabilization of the State are the cornerstones of Alhora, the clearly pro-independence project that is running in the general elections for the first time. For the moment, the party led by Jordi Graupera has secured the endorsements needed to run in the elections, tripling (16,000) those required. Alhora debuted in the last Catalan elections but suffered a significant setback, ending up with only 13,000 votes, 0.4% of the total. The presidential candidate believes that one situation cannot be equated with the other: "Two years ago we were six founders, six days later they called the elections and six weeks later was the polling day; now we have 650 militants, we have 1,200 volunteers and we hold large events and campaigns. We have obtained more endorsements than votes two years ago; the growth is obvious".

What do you vote for, parties or people? In general, I recommend focusing more on the parties, that is to say, on the ideology or the program that inspires them, rather than on the proper names at the helm. People pass, organizations remain. And if they don't remain, it is often precisely because of hyper-leadership. That is what happened to Pujol’s Convergència. Sooner or later, we will have to see what happens to Puigdemont’s Junts. At the same time, it is also true that without a strong leader it is difficult to keep any organization cohesive: whether it is a party, an institution, a company, or an association. The balance between the group and the personality that heads it is never simple.

Gabriel Rufián confirmed last Friday that he had requested a trusted team to accompany him on the list for the November 29th general elections. "Rufián wants to have trusted people. And who doesn't? Doesn't Miriam Nogueras have trusted people?", he said in an interview with RAC1. When he submitted his request to the party, the leadership reminded him that the candidates who are part of the list emerge from territorial assemblies and are voted for by the membership. He asked to have more room for maneuver to place some of his closest collaborators in winnable spots, but ultimately the candidacy is essentially nourished by people close to Oriol Junqueras' leadership. In fact, the president himself will make an appearance, symbolically closing the candidacy (number 31, with MEP Diana Riba at 32) for the first time he is able to do so: this very Tuesday the amnesty was applied to him. Raül Romeva is also there, as a substitute, who for the first time can also be on an electoral list. Dolors Bassa, however, is not there, who also ceased to be disqualified this Tuesday.

After losing the mayoralty of Sant Cugat del Vallès in 2023, Mireia Ingla (la Seu d'Urgell, 1966) returns to institutional politics. Until now she held the management of the Xarxa Audiovisual Local, and this week ERC has chosen her to be Gabriel Rufián's number two in Congress. A responsibility that a priori will not be easy, taking into account the clash between the republican spokesperson and Oriol Junqueras' leadership over the broad front that Rufián has defended in recent months. With a law degree and a master's degree in mediation from the University of Barcelona (UB), Ingla has already faced unpleasant situations before.

A society is ordered when it is governed according to a common concept of justice that is shared and respected. This must begin with self-respect, which is the primary principle. That is what John Rawls thought. Spinoza, in a similar vein, proposed that without self-respect and self-appreciation, happiness is impossible: a person will not be able to respect others if they do not respect themselves. This entails believing in one's own project but also having enough strength to carry it out. This second element is as important as the first. In Spain, we often forget this, both historically and in current practice.

There are still a few hours left to determine whether Ada Colau's Broad Front and Irene Montero's Podemos will join forces in a single left-wing candidacy in the State. In Catalonia, it will not happen. Gabriel Rufián regrets that ERC has closed the door to running with the Comuns and claims that in the last few hours he has been on the verge of quitting, but that, "out of responsibility," he remains at the head of the republican candidacy for the upcoming general elections. As always, in this Friday's interviews on RAC1 and TVE, the republican spokesperson has left a series of phrases and slogans that we compile below.

The unity of the left-wing parties to the left of the PSOE will not happen. 

The political forces “to the left of the PSOE” had until this Friday to unify efforts and present some kind of joint proposal that could inspire, or at least mobilize, their electorate. We are referring to the parties of the so-called Broad Front (Sumar, Comuns, Més Madrid, IU) and the two parties of the Rufianista-Monterista Front, or ERC-Podem. This, however, has not happened. The fronts that have prevailed, for the umpteenth time, are the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front, so inspirationally described in Life of Brian by Monty Python, and their customary, irritating, stupid inability to reach any kind of agreement among themselves. Unless there is, in stoppage time, one of those tiresome plot twists, one of those childish attention-grabbing stunts that the politicians of our time have subscribed to, the “unity of the left” will not happen again, precisely because of those who have spent months and years lecturing and gesturing about the need for the unity of the left. The fact that the calling of elections surprised all these forces with their homework undone and completely disorganized was already shameful enough; that in the following weeks they have not only been unable to correct this situation but have ended up ruining it, is a calamity. In any way they could, the voters were asking for only one thing: a single ballot, a single list to vote for. For this, one did not even need “unity of the left”, just a certain willingness to reach an understanding. A little bit of skill, intelligence, flexibility, a steady hand (left, yes) and, above all, an important dose of humility, self-criticism and a will to serve the citizenry. There has been nothing of all that. Neither “a single ballot” nor anything else. Nothing at all.

Gabriel Rufián, number 1; Mireia Ingla, number 2; Jordi Albert, number 3, and Laura Pelay, number 4. These are, for the moment, the candidates that ERC has announced for the Barcelona constituency. To complete the list for the demarcation, the numbers will reach up to 32 (plus the substitutes), and it has not yet been made public what position the person designated by Podem will occupy. But who will it be? According to sources consulted by ARA, one of the names that the purple party had put on the table was that of the journalist Cristina Fallarás, a Catalan born in Zaragoza and a resident of Madrid. But it will not be her who finally becomes part of the republican candidacy. Podem, in fact, avoids publicly advancing any name, but assures that it will come from the open primary process that it started this Wednesday and that will close this Thursday. The name will specifically come from the people who have presented themselves in the Barcelona demarcation.

Friday is the deadline to present coalitions for the upcoming general elections and, at this moment, negotiations between the parties to the left of the PSOE remain open. In 2023, the agreement to form Sumar arrived at the last minute (with Podemos inside, despite the veto on Irene Montero) and, this year, it is on its way to being resolved for better or worse at the last minute as well. In fact, the stumbling block remains how to unite the parties that make up the Broad Front – Moviment Sumar, United Left, Más Madrid, and the Comuns – with Podemos, which right now would run alone. The purple party, however, has sought an alliance with Gabriel Rufián and ERC, wanting it to be a catalyst and a way to put pressure on the Broad Front in the negotiation. Are there possibilities for a joint candidacy? What would happen with ERC if Podemos integrates into the Broad Front?

Two Catalans, Ada Colau and Gabriel Rufián, come to the rescue of the Spanish left. 

The battle of Gabriel Rufián to unite the Spanish left will still provide 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 a week of negotiations, ERC has confirmed that Gabriel Rufián will be the party's candidate in the upcoming general elections. It did so in a statement in which it announced that he will be the number one on the republicans' list for Barcelona. According to Rufián's circle, he has reached an understanding with Podem so that the purple party "does not run in Catalonia" and asks for the vote for ERC, something that sources from Oriol Junqueras' party leadership confirm.

The leadership of Esquerra Republicana and the Basque pro-independence party Bildu have agreed to repeat the joint candidacy of both parties for the Senate in the upcoming general elections on November 29, as reported by ERC in a statement. The grassroots of both sovereignist parties will ratify the proposal in the coming days. Both parties already ran for the Senate on a single ticket in the 2023 elections, despite their independent action within the chamber—notwithstanding the coordination between the organizations. A continuation of the collaboration between the pro-independence left, which contrasts with the desire of the republican leader in Madrid, Gabriel Rufián, to incorporate "other left-wing forces" in the State into a state-wide candidacy.

With twelve years of delay, in the month of January, the then Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, presented a new autonomous financing model. It was the first time that such progress had been made since the 2009 reform, also promoted by the PSOE, although that reform arrived with the consensus of all the communities governed by the socialists –those of the PP voted against it– and also with the specific endorsement of the tripartite that was then piloting the Generalitat. A very different situation from the current one, because Montero presented a reform that only Catalonia and the Canary Islands have endorsed and that has had to overcome an adverse electoral cycle for the Moncloa. "Do you want me to wrap myself in an estelada in Andalusia?", the former minister said to ERC, recalls a consulted source. The Andalusian elections in May –with Montero as the socialist candidate–, in fact, caused the calendar to be delayed. So much so, that it has not even reached the council of ministers table.

ERC sees an agreement on track for Gabriel Rufián to be the party's candidate in the next general elections. According to various sources consulted by ARA, the conversations remain open and are daily, but the party considers that it will not be necessary to resort to a plan B –the leadership had considered the member of Parliament Jordi Albert– because the negotiations with its current spokesperson in Madrid are advancing. Esquerra opened the internal process on Monday to configure the candidacies for the next general elections and the internal deadline to apply ends this Sunday afternoon. Rufián has until then to decide if he finally opts for re-election in case the talks with the leadership come to a successful conclusion. For the moment, the environment of the republican spokesperson maintains silence.

"For my birthday I want a Bad Bunny figure, an Anuel AA one, or one of Gabriel Rufián". The girl asking for it won't be able to vote on November 29th (for any of the three), because she is only thirteen years old, but at her high school she doesn't need to give many details for her 2nd year ESO classmates to know who she is talking about. Two world music stars and a politician, the one who has the most appeal among young people (and not so young). Although he began his political career in 2015, Rufián is experiencing a second youth in Madrid. Having become the preferred leader for left-wing voters (only Pedro Sánchez overshadows him) and the best-rated in polls (in Spain and in Catalonia), he is currently the most coveted candidate: for ERC, for the Broad Front, and for Podemos. The vote-mobilizing potential of his speech is not disputed by anyone, but, consolidated as a free spirit, the tensions within his party have been growing to the point of becoming a big enough problem that his continuity has been called into question.

What is happening with Gabriel Rufián is what was bound to happen to Esquerra sooner or later. For years now, the speeches of Esquerra's leader in Madrid have sounded more like Podemos or Sumar than Esquerra. He often ignores the possibility of speaking in Catalan. He has ended up designating himself as the critical conscience of the Spanish left. His level of popularity in Spain among voters in this segment is enormous; Rufián knows how to polarize and, living up to his phrase “Less libraries and more TikTok,” his ability to gain audiences on social media is great. He has declared himself willing to head a plurinational list of all the parties to the left of the PSOE. And his party has told him no. At the time of writing this analysis, Rufián has still not decided to be the head of Esquerra's list under the conditions that the party wants.

Esquerra opened its internal process on Monday to choose its candidate for the next general elections, and Gabriel Rufián has not yet confirmed whether he wants to represent the party in Madrid again. In fact, negotiations between the leadership and Rufián remain open, without any agreement having been reached so far. The relationship between Rufián and the republican leadership has been tense for some time, especially after the republican spokesperson launched a push for a left-wing front across the State—which the ERC leadership rejects. The party, however, has finally decided to seek a plan B in case Rufián ends up declining to lead the candidacy and has already put forward an alternative name, that of deputy Jordi Albert, as reported by El Periódico and confirmed by ARA. Albert has already begun collecting endorsements to present his candidacy.

The former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont has declared the end of the "political repression" stage following the 1-O, after the Constitutional Court fully endorsed the amnesty. The decision represents, he said, a defeat for the various Spanish public powers that have put obstacles in the way of the law's application "for strictly political reasons." The institutional appearance of the former head of Government took place this afternoon, a few hours after the Supreme Court also announced the lifting of his arrest warrant, which represents the first definitive step for him to return from exile to Catalonia. The leader of Junts has claimed the "enormous political importance" of the law, which disavows the repression and makes it evident that "this was not the way." However, he warned that the political conflict with the State remains in force: "In terms of the Catalonia-Spain relationship, nothing is solved today [...]. The amnesty is not in itself a solution," he claimed from Waterloo.