Jaume Asens would not have managed to add enough support within En Comú Podem to repeat as head of the list of his formation -now with the prefix Sumar- for Barcelona. Although the president of the parliamentary group of Unidas Podemos had the firm intention of leading the list again and continuing, an alternative name has been emerging in the purple formation, that of Aina Vidal, also a deputy in Congress, who has managed to have the majority confidence of the heavyweights of the formation. As a result, Asens has announced that he is leaving the front line of politics and is blessing Vidal’s election.
Asens himself has given an account of his decision in a note on social networks, where he indicates his willingness not to stand in the next elections: “There are moments in which you have to know how to step aside to let other leaders, who can better connect with the new times, take over and thus put collective interests before individual ones”. Asens considers his aspirations in public life fulfilled after having served a term in the Barcelona city council, as deputy mayor, and another in Congress, as deputy and president of the United We Can parliamentary group.
Stepping next to Asens leaves Aina Vidal free to lead the Sumar En Comú Podem list for Barcelona, ??whom Asens himself points out is a woman “that I admire, who comes from union struggles and who knows what It’s hard work.” Given the opportunity to have a female president of Spain for the first time, in reference to Yolanda Díaz, the leader points out that “En Comú Podem also deserves to be led by a brave woman like Aina Vidal.”
The list for Barcelona, ??led by Vidal, will have Gerardo Pisarello as number two, Gala Pin in third place; Podemos organization secretary Lilith Verstrynge in the fourth – fruit of the agreement of En Comú Podemos y Sumar-; Eloi Badia in the fifth and the coordinator of En Comú Podem Candela López in the sixth.
This same Friday morning, some sources took Asens’s election for granted, but others indicated that not everything had been said yet, so that the national council that will be held this Friday, in which the final list will be debated and voted on , would be crucial. Before that conclave, Aina Vidal’s supporters made clear their intention to defend their commitment to the end.
The commons have rushed the last hours to design a list that was pending the agreement between Yolanda Díaz and Podemos and the negotiations with Podem in Catalonia. And they have taken the issue in total secrecy until this Friday, when Asens himself has made the decision to leave before the greatest consensus that brought together the name of Vidal.
The very delay in drawing up the lists reinforces the fact that the debate on the head of the list for Barcelona has boiled in the commons, focused on two profiles with different accents. Asens gained weight four years ago due to his link with sovereignism. Before entering Congress, the lawyer advised pro-independence leaders such as Carles Puigdemont on his flight to Belgium, and the president of Òmnium, Jordi Cuixart, who asked him to represent him in the Supreme Court trial. But he also has extensive experience defending causes linked to social movements, such as the Platform for Mortgage Affected People (PAH), the ‘anti-Bologna’ or the ‘yayoflautas’.
His election four years ago already generated the reservations of Podem Catalunya, but now they would have spread as a result of the appeasement in Catalonia after the years of the ‘procés’. After announcing that he is leaving the front line of politics, the commons have vindicated him for precisely that role in the process of “dialogue and de-judicialization, marking a before and after in Catalan and Spanish politics.”
Vidal, by contrast, has gained weight. Choosing him would curb the feeling that with Asens a personalism is reinforced in the Catalan space. In addition, Vidal’s supporters highlight her experience in Congress -deputy since 2016-, her youth -38 years old- and her connection to neighborhood and labor struggles. Suffering from a “rare, intense and aggressive” cancer, she herself recounted that the doctors have managed to chronicle a disease that “was ahead of me.” Her supporters also point out that a woman would better match the project of Yolanda Díaz, who aspires precisely to become the first president of the Government of Spain.
