The president of Esquerra Republicana (ERC), Oriol Junqueras, met this Wednesday in Congress with the deputies of his group in a context marked by frictions between the party leadership and the parliamentary spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, following his defense of a left-wing project of state scope.
Since Rufián raised the idea of promoting a left-wing front, even offering to lead that platform to try to stop the PP and Vox in future general elections, a growing tension began to be felt within the ERC, which also made itself felt in the group in the Lower House.
While the spokesperson in Congress urged Esquerra to lead that left-wing front, the party's leadership reaffirmed its commitment to run alone, without alliances with formations from other territories or state-level parties.
In that context, Rufián even raised conditions to repeat as ERC's head of list, including having his own margin for negotiation in Madrid, although the leadership has already reiterated that the party's political line is set in Barcelona and not in Congress.
Internal discomfort and public reproaches
The response came from the parliamentary group itself, when deputy Jordi Salvador disseminated a message on social media in which he stressed that "ERC is not a personal platform or a space for ultimatums," and warned that he is willing to take his criticisms to the public sphere. "If necessary, some of us will speak publicly and the nonsense will end. Patience has a limit," he concluded.
The latest episode of these discrepancies occurred this very week, after Rufián defended in the corridors of Congress, given the hypothesis of an early election, that it only made sense to prolong the legislature if it was to "stop speculation regarding housing" or to create "fairer taxation." "But holding on for nothing is foolish. People deserve a left that is not shameful," he stated.
These statements were met with a reply from Oriol Junqueras, who stressed that, given that Pedro Sánchez's government is "weak," the most convenient thing is to support its continuity to "close fundamental issues for Catalonia."
In this scenario of internal discrepancies, Junqueras traveled this Wednesday to Madrid to hold one of his usual meetings with ERC parliamentarians. However, while the republican leader accessed the Congress facilities, Rufián remained in the hemicycle, waiting to intervene in a debate on the advisability or not of anticipating general elections.