Esquerra has more rivals to consider for this electoral campaign than keys on a piano. The PSOE, the PP, Vox, Junts, the commons, the abstentionism. Even the very participation of the CUP means that it is left without a small portion of the pro-independence electorate. Those of Oriol Junqueras are going to have to diversify their message. Today they have done it by placing Sumar in the spotlight. Gabriel Rufián, ERC number one for Congress, has accused the formation led by Yolanda Díaz of being an “operation” that has been devised “from a Ferraz office or from a Moncloa office.”
Gabriel Rufián, together with number two, Teresa Jordà, has argued that in a cyclical way “Spanish progressivism invents an artifact”. According to the Republican, it was verified with Podemos after the 15-M protests. “Now it’s Yolanda Díaz’s turn.”
And it is that Esquerra blames the current vice president of the Government and Sumar for not clarifying, as they point out, their position with respect to the right to self-determination. “When Díaz talks about almost everything, I understand him, except when he talks about Catalonia and a paradigmatic example is the Schrödinger referendum, which appears and disappears depending on Schrödinger”, Rufián pointed out. Something that, in the opinion of the Republicans, does not occur with Podemos, both under the leadership of Pablo Iglesias and Ione Belarra.
The head of the ERC list has gone further. He has stressed that Sumar is a political space that “has sold its own people.” In this framework, he has placed Irene Montero, Minister of Equality: “They have believed that by selling” Montero “pointed out by the de facto powers of the Spanish State they were going to treat them better.” For this reason, she has verified that betting on Díaz at the polls is voting for “a white lie.”
With all this reasoning, the Republican wanted to highlight that the “only threat” to the status quo is the Basque and Catalan independence movements of EH Bildu and Esquerra Republicana.
On the other hand, in ERC there is the firm conviction that a new notable abstention of the pro-independence electorate is a shot in the foot. He studies how to fight it and for this he presents a poster whose motto “Defend Catalonia!” It complements a graphic that shows that the candidates are the ballots of some ballot boxes formed with words such as democracy or feminism. “We do ourselves a disservice as democrats. (…) Abstention is poison for the left,” said Rufián while hinting that abstentionism could be financed.
Jordà has also tried to put his finger on the sore. For the Republican, those of July 23 “are not just another election” and has pointed out that Catalonia is at stake with its language, culture, the rights of women and of the Catalan school and of SMEs in the face of a “neo-Francoism that intends to govern our lives”.
