Beyond the PSOE and the PSC, the left-wing parties paint a plural mosaic in the Spanish state. This complex configuration expresses two facts. The plurinational character of the State, with differentiated societies that generate their own party systems, and the tendency towards ideologically delimited spaces: a culture of political affiliation that makes it difficult to articulate broad fronts. Broadly speaking, in ten of the seventeen autonomous communities, proximity left-wing parties operate with an institutional presence. In all cases, it is a single entity that brings together progressive sovereigntism: Endavant Andalusia, the BNG, the CHA, Compromís, Bildu, Més Madrid, Més and Nova Canàries. Catalonia is the exception: here ERC, Comuns and CUP inhabit (and dispute) the space. On the other hand, there are three forces with the will to operate throughout the State: IU, Podem and Moviment Sumar.Throughout the years 2023 to 2026, the sovereignist lefts complete a cycle with relevant results: above 30% in Euskadi and Galicia; between 15% and 25% in Catalonia, Madrid, Navarra, and the Valencian Country; around 10% in Andalusia, Aragon, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands. The federal lefts, in the same cycle, are situated at modest levels: between 2% and 5%. In three communities, however, these forces articulate candidacies based on trajectories that go beyond a specific coalition: Per Andalusia, Unides per Extremadura, and Contigo-Zurekin (Navarra); in all cases, the results improve and are situated between 6% and 10%. The set of these dynamics offers some keys for navigating paths of strengthening. It is also about factors connected to underlying trends.Territorial rootedness. In a global context of uncertainties, individualization, and acceleration of rhythms, community anchorages are absolutely necessary. But they must be rebuilt on new foundations. The explosion of diversity requires daily environments where bonds are possible. It is about equipping life paths with elements of relational security: frameworks where support and collective action capacities are articulated. In political terms, these solidarity grammars translate into actors oriented towards working with logics of territorial rootedness and municipalist projects. Political forces similar to the people, where belonging is built in terms of practices and values, rather than ideological narratives; where identity is oriented towards forging popular power and local sovereignties, rather than national abstractions.The will to articulate majorities. Throughout the last century, the political expression of social conflict consolidated the classic left/right axis. In that context, social democracy managed to gain centrality in the progressive sphere. And even more relevant: it built a framework of reference, which placed the rest of the actors, for example, to the left of the socialists. This framework still underpins – often inertially – many perceptions. But it has begun to overflow. Spaces of the left are now being articulated that move from the corner of the board towards broader proposals. Political forces that connect with new common senses, more transformative and more transversal at the same time.The activation of hope and joy. “To be radical is to make hope possible, not to convince despair”. With these words, the Welsh sociologist Raymond Williams wanted to establish a clear counterpoint to an emotional state deeply embedded in the left. What Deleuze called the sad passions: a political logic given to discouragement, or, in the best of cases, to digging trenches of resistance. But here too things have begun to change: the left of hope is emerging. Actors who link transformative ambition to joyful passions. Political spaces that are working on a new emotional framework that generates horizons of meaning, and also fraternal paths to move forward. A rebellious grammar – without resentment or nostalgia – woven by trust and empathy.The good recent results of the sovereignist left, and also of the federal ones when they work from proximity, offer solid foundations. The challenge now is to translate this baggage into formulas for cooperation with tactical intelligence (given an electoral system in which proportionality largely disappears in much of the territory). A good result for the left in the general elections will be key to defeating PP and Vox. Two open proposals for confluence have been put forward: the call by Gabriel Rufián and that of the Sumar parties in government. They should be worked on, cross-recognitions built, and progress made towards inclusive fronts: pivoting on plurinationality, with the capacity to articulate majorities and broaden hope. Perhaps it is not easy, but it would be difficult to explain not trying.

1. Social democracy must be resurrected. It is a slogan of the moment, in full struggle with a rising neo-fascism, which emanates from the melancholy of the distant times of Europe's rebirth after the Second World War, the so-called "Trente Glorieuses" (1945-1973), which encompass the apotheosis of the sixties, when everything seemed possible. But how should we read it? In the positive version, recognition of citizens' rights, more social spending, dignification of work, and housing for all as shared goals. However, the repetition, as if it were a litany, becomes suspicious at a time when a large part of the citizenry feels stuck or out of play under the weight of constant acceleration, which with its destructive effects actually hinders any sketch of hope. A time when oppression is transferred to machines at the expense of labor, considerably increasing the concentration of power in the hands that manage them. In fact, it is the nostalgia for a time that was actually shorter and more precarious than we have believed, around the United States, Great Britain, France, and liberated Germany, which dressed up the ephemeral myth of a more or less controlled capitalism, with somewhat idealized levels of equity. Frustration and melancholy are now chained together as, with the transition from industrial to digital and financial capitalism, everything seems upside down in the hands of economic and media powers with enormous polluting capacity.

Moviment Sumar –Yolanda Díaz's party– has set course for its third general assembly in three years to update its roadmap. The conclave, which will be held on July 11, will arrive at a time when the formation is immersed in an internal crisis that has erupted after two significant resignations from the executive that have highlighted a fratricidal war for power. One of the main missions of the extraordinary congress will be to choose the two people who are to lead the party. But the formation will also have to approve the political-organizational report. One of the issues to which the draft refers is the alliance policy that Sumar must weave, and it directly alludes to "the sovereignist left," which in Catalonia is led by Esquerra Republicana. "We will not build a common entity with forces that have different ideas of the State from ours, but we can build a common program and a conjunctural alliance," the document states.

There are historical moments when certain political tendencies seem to impose themselves unstoppably, as if carried by a gust of wind. A few years ago, the rise of the far-right was unthinkable; it is true that the disasters of the 20th century are now far away for the new generations, but we have seen enough films and heard so much talk about Hitlerian madness and the dictatorship that long oppressed us that it seemed impossible that anyone could still believe that those slogans were desirable and could improve collective life. And yet, we have seen how the wave has been spreading across Europe, how it has devoured the United States, how it is rising among us, perhaps to engulf us too. We have many explanations for why this has happened. The easiest and most trivial is the one that attributes it to the errors of left-wing parties, to corruption scandals, to internal squabbles. All of this is certainly present, but they are minor issues when compared to everything that the left has achieved since the Transition: free healthcare and education systems, pensions, redistribution of income through political action. Everything that is at risk when the far-right arrives; this, initially supported by populist proposals, always changes when it has already achieved power, with a coup d'état if necessary, if it sees its dominion threatened. And then the party is over, it is repression that settles in, and, unfortunately, sometimes for many years. Is it inevitable that in Spain the next government will be PP+Vox, a combination that could be terrible, and that will once again turn Catalonia into the favorite enemy, along with immigration? Can the left-wing parties do anything to prevent it? I think, at this moment, this is a key question: I don't know if we have time to avoid disaster, but, at least, we should try.

Nobody questions that Gabriel Rufián has established himself as an undisputed benchmark for the left throughout the State: he is, after all, the fourth best-rated politician in Spain and the preferred by Catalans. ERC's spokesperson in Congress has long made an uninhibited call – and discredited by the leadership of their partyLast week, Gabriel Rufián took another step and

This morning, sports, Barça, gave us a reason to create a cheerful cover, that of theThe result has been another night of celebration for a fanbase that, unlike what happens in so many other aspects of the country, has high self-esteem. We hope that the adherence to Catalan identity that Barça has provided in a society of immigration continues to function thanks to these successes and the identification with this very young and very normal team. Another good piece of news: the PCR test on the Catalan woman who has been in isolation at the Hospital Clínic since Saturday has come back negative for hantavirus. The woman was admitted for quarantine because she had been in the same plane for a few minutes with the Dutch woman who contracted it on board the cruise ship and who ended up dying.The woman continues to show no symptoms and, in accordance with epidemiological surveillance protocols, will remain confined and under observation at the Clínic for prevention. In seven days, another PCR will be performed to confirm the negative result.And here we return to the harsh reality: from today onwards, the Rodalies service is once again subject to a charge. (It has always been subject to a charge, of course, we all pay for it: we are referring to the user's direct payment). Payment in exchange for what? The trains run when they want, the timetables are an intention, but of course, in many journeys, the train is a bus. The improvement of the service is being slow. It is clear that due to the harsh reality of education. A week of strikes in schools and institutes begins. Relations between the department and the unions are very tense. The only thing missing was for the unions to find out from the radio that the counselor wanted to see them on Thursday. They will meet on Thursday and, on top of that, we have the scandal of the infiltration of two Mossos agents into a teachers' assembly that we already talked about last Friday. Now that more details are known, apart from what it has of authoritarian regime espionage, it is even more humiliating that the police were discovered on such a simple mission.Let's see if it solves things a bit that we have budgets for this 2026. Late, but we will have budgets. So once the Andalusian elections have passed on Sunday, PSC and Esquerra will be able to present their agreement. It is scandalous, but Catalanophobia sets the pace of Spanish politics. Moreno Bonilla is campaigning to preside over Andalusia by constantly talking about Catalonia. After the breakdown weeks ago due to the new financing system for Catalonia, Esquerra set out to find a striking agreement. There is talk of a transfer of powers from the State, but in the meantime, Junqueras has explained that the agreement will include a train, curiously. This: An orbital axis that connects Maresme with Garraf, passing through the two Vallesos, Baix Llobregat and Penedès. In black the sections that exist and in yellow those that should be built. We are talking about up to 5,000 million euros of investment, which the State should largely provide. The project is old, but now they have taken it out of the drawer where it was sleeping.Good morning.

The convergent gene re-emerges within Junts in the midst of a process to straighten out the party and its ideological bases, but there is a Junts sector that still self-identifies as left-wing. This situation is causing internal tensions, both at the national and local levels, and sources consulted by ARA explain that a portion of the party's leaders believe that the time has come to dispense with this current, and some even advocate for ending all currents within the party and channeling nuances through unity. Right now, however, this is not a viable scenario, as no major shifts are expected from former president Carles Puigdemont. But, what is the influence of the left within Junts?

This time we have had a more representative May Day compared to some of the preceding years. In the events called for by the unions, the emotional chord was struck deeply, in mobilizations that respond to a specific political and social situation and that carry a clear message. The main celebration was held in Malaga for various reasons, starting with the fact that Andalusia votes on May 17. The call has allowed for an image of a certain unity of the left, which we already know does not exist in political terms. However, it has become clear that there are indeed essential points of coincidence, susceptible of becoming driving ideas for future initiatives, especially as the general elections approach. The fact that María Jesús Montero and Yolanda Díaz coincided at the Malaga demonstration does not reduce their differences, but it does reflect a common denominator on key issues.

The progressive world meeting was held a few days ago in Barcelona, under the auspices and leadership of Pedro Sánchez. Undoubtedly, a successful turnout that reaffirms the constitution of a political bloc defending democratic and progressive values against the advances of the populist discourse led by Donald Trump. Social democracy and the left of the Global South made themselves heard in an event that had a great symbolic charge of progressive re-empowerment against the chaos, reactionism, and warmongering that seem to dominate current politics. The forum proved relevant, a wake-up call and a raising of the left's flag against the rightward drift that seems to dominate both in Spain and in the world. It was the certification of Pedro Sánchez's benchmark leadership against Trumpism, war, and Israel's hegemony in the Middle East. It reinforced Spain's role, as a benchmark, for those who consider growing inequality and social exclusion as major dynamics to combat in current politics.However, behind the successful call, the enormous significance that the media gave to the Global Progressive Mobilisation, its significant character and the establishment of an alternative narrative, all remained in the realm of the symbolic. There is no relevance to consider in the realm of applied politics. It fulfilled its role in current politics, understood as a game of declarations and counter-declarations that dominates us, but it had no practical and tangible effect. Surely it was not the place. Nor did the left that gathered there provide a new message, a renovating discourse, a left-wing program to apply in the coming years. It cannot be denied that social democracy has lost many supporters in recent decades, both in Europe and in the world. Since the 1990s, it has been changing its realpolitik, they exercised alternation, not alternative, and carried out more or less the same policies as the liberal-conservatives, and did not put into practice, either in form or in substance, any credible program of change.

For days, the indeterminate "Operation Rufián" has been the subject of analysis and commentary in the media. Few things are more pleasing than speculating about indeterminate proposals. The spokesperson for Esquerra Republicana in the Congress of Deputies is demonstrating, once again, his great ability to place himself in the center of the dance and make everyone talk about him. This is not a minor skill for a left-wing politician, in these times.

If you've been following the story of how the Government withdrew the budget proposal it had submitted to Parliament at the last minute, it won't surprise you that today we begin by emphasizing that The elections in Andalusia now have a date: May 17th.

"Teaming up with Gabriel [Rufián] seems like a great idea to me," Irene Montero said a few days ago, in a significant change of attitude. In Sumar, Montero's most hated enemy, Yolanda Díaz, has withdrawn from the front lines, making it clear that she will finish her current term as Vice President of the Spanish government, but will no longer run as a Sumar candidate. It was also a few days ago that Yolanda Díaz made clear her willingness to consider the possibility of uniting (or subsuming) Sumar into a broader project of the left—to the left of the PSOE—to run in the general elections, as proposed by the ERC spokesperson in Congress, the aforementioned Gabriel Rufián, now the white mermaid ( white blackbird(You'll have to excuse me) of the left, of what Salvador Espriu called the bull's hide. That is to say: Catalan, Galician, Basque, and Spanish leftists, pro-independence and pro-union leftists, united to stop the shift to the right and the far right. This was largely the subject of some of Espriu's major works, such as the play Esther's First Story or the poems of The bull's hideWe are in the vicinity of Iberianism, the idea of ​​an Iberian Peninsula formed by a set of cultures and languages ​​(Portuguese, Castilian, Basque, Galician, and Catalan, which includes Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and the Balearic Islands) that should coexist in peace, respect, and mutual understanding. This is an idea that Espriu took up from Joan Maragall and that has been defended by other intellectuals: more recently, the Portuguese José Saramago and the Asturian Xuan Bello.

The opposition from Esquerra Republicana, along with the rejection by the PP, Vox, and UPN, has sunk the law promoted by the PSOE in Congress to lower the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers from 0.5 grams per liter to 0.2. This legislation had been stalled for a year. It is the first time this legislative term that the Republicans have rejected a law promoted by the Spanish government – ​​in the previous term they did so with the labor reform, which passed thanks to a mistake by the PP. The decision comes – precisely – on the same day that the PSC and ERC agreed that the Catalan Government withdraw the Generalitat's budgets To prevent Salvador Illa from suffering a parliamentary setback on Friday, MP Inés Granollers argued during the debate in the lower house's Interior Committee that "this law won't prevent accidents; what it will do is cause a lot of frustration." The Republican MP lamented that the Socialists were "cowards" for establishing a rate around 0.0 and argued that the law was "very cynical" and contained a "false promise." However, the PSOE, Sumar, Junts, Bildu, and the PNV supported it, with 18 votes in favor and 19 against. The ERC's position was that the "best" rate would have been to prohibit drivers from drinking a single drop of alcohol, but not only that. The Republicans also advocated for early retirement for professional drivers—they presented an amendment to this effect—and for reducing the number of hours they can spend behind the wheel. Furthermore, they had long been demanding more driving examiners in Catalonia to end the backlog of waiting lists. In fact, there was a call this morning between ERC and Pere Navarro, the Director General of Traffic, but the conversation was unproductive. "The truth is, we haven't received an adequate response," summarized Inés Granollers.

Teachers are continuing their week-long strikes today, and this morning they received the support of farmers in the Terres de l'Ebre region. There are so many sectoral grievances (teachers, peasants, Renfe users(public healthcare users, those aspiring to rent an apartment…) that the unease is widespread. And if you look up at the world, this unease transforms into anguish, not only because of the price of oil or making ends meet—which is a real struggle—but also because of the survival of democracy and, at times, of humanity itself. This is the socio-emotional portrait of society right now. We all operate within this ecosystem of general malaise.

I have always valued politicians who, when necessary, abandon the script and make proposals that involve a certain risk. That is what ERC deputy Gabriel Rufián has just done in Madrid. All my respect, although, as I will try to explain in this paper, neither the diagnosis nor the prescription seems appropriate to me. The discussion about how parties "to the left of the PSOE" should act (sicThe idea of ​​avoiding vote splitting, including the proposal to present single candidates per constituency, only scratches the surface of a much deeper debate. No one dares to address it, whether due to ideological discomfort and/or fear of political damage. In most European countries, the left has been losing its connection with the urban working class, as well as with a rural population that is currently at a critical juncture and which everyone ignores for a simple arithmetic reason: they represent few votes. Ultimately, the fundamental issue has little to do with the electoral tactics proposed by Rufián and much more to do with a lack of genuine representation: who feels addressed by this type of left today, who actually perceives a solution? This is the issue, and nothing else, and it cannot be resolved without a course correction that should have occurred long ago.

Suddenly Pedro Sánchez has managed focus on 23-FWe won't begin to learn what the declassified documents say until tomorrow, and therefore, we won't know the historical significance of this latest distraction tactic by the Spanish president until tomorrow. The political significance, aside from steering the public conversation, is to remind everyone that far-right coups in Spain are possible.

One of the hottest debates this week in the Congress of Deputies It has been the burka ban promoted by VoxAlthough it failed to pass and only garnered the votes of the People's Party (PP), the far-right initiative opened the floodgates of discussion on the appropriateness of prohibiting the use of the full-face veil. Together for Catalonia (Juntos) presented a bill on the same day to ban it in public spaces—a text that the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) has agreed to consider—the PP followed suit two days later, and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) has also submitted its own proposal. According to party sources, the Republicans are not in favor of prohibiting the full-face veil and imposing criminal penalties on women who violate it, but they do advocate for "discouraging" its use through mandatory community service. This is their "effective solution" to "end the burka" while preventing the measure from harming the women who wear it, they believe. "Making the burka a crime will isolate them even more," warned ERC leader Oriol Junqueras this week.

The republican front that Gabriel Rufián envisions as a way to stop the far right faces enormous resistance from the very parties that should be part of it. The primary opponent is, in fact, Esquerra Republicana. Since Wednesday's presentation in Madrid There is also a question that keeps echoing: if the fourteen left-wing parties Rufián mentions shouldn't compete against each other, who should run in each province? He didn't give a clear answer, but he did suggest that the brand should be decided based on electoral expectations in each specific territory. Probably, in the mind of the ERC spokesperson in Congress, his party would be the leading force of this left-wing front in Catalonia. But, of course, how would you determine who has the best prospects? Based on polls? Recent results? Each party's history?

You can have whatever opinion you want about Gabriel Rufián and his public persona, but the idea he has been insisting on lately (the formation of a left-wing front that can run in the general elections as a single, unified force to confront the far right) is based on a couple of observations he must have had the opportunity to make in his time on the political scene.

The Spanish legislature often hangs by a thread. The devilish arithmetic left by the June 23rd elections forces Pedro Sánchez to work incredibly hard in every vote. One of the areas where the Spanish government struggles most is in the ratification of royal decree-laws, regulations approved by the Council of Ministers that require the endorsement of Congress. This legislature has seen five repealed, the same number as in the previous 45 years. It is no surprise that the two usual allies who have most frequently abandoned the Moncloa Palace are Junts and Podem. In contrast, Esquerra Republicana is the only partner that has voted in favor of all 31 royal decree-laws promoted by the Spanish government and submitted to a vote in the lower house. The Republicans, along with the PNV, are the only ones with a specific clause in their legislation. the investiture agreement which they signed with the PSOE in which they commit to "providing stability" to the legislature "in parallel with fulfilling the commitments made" through the "willingness to approve," among other things, the decree laws.