Spain’s Minister for Industry and Tourism Jordi Hereu has accused Catalan politician Gabriel Rufián of splitting the left. In an interview with the Nació website published on 15 November, Hereu said Rufián should have united the left-wing camp, but had instead contributed significantly to its division.
The two politicians are facing each other in the Spanish general election on 29 November in the constituency of Barcelona Hereu is leading the list there for the Catalan Socialists Rufián is the lead candidate for the party that supports Catalan independence, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, or ERC for short.
Hereu was particularly critical of Rufián’s support for a smaller political force outside Catalonia. In his view, it would cost the left-wing alliance Frente Amplio votes in numerous provinces and make success harder to achieve. He also said that Frente Amplio had failed to generate enough enthusiasm. Responsibility for the difficulties is therefore Hereu’s assessment as a Socialist candidate, not an established fact.
ERC and the left-wing party Podemos agreed to work together for the election in October. Rufián and Podemos politician Irene Montero are accordingly campaigning together; Podemos is supporting ERC’s candidacy in Catalonia. This does not mean that all left-wing forces are campaigning together.
In the interview, Hereu called for progressive votes to be pooled. Each province needed to consider how to get progressive MPs into parliament. That would determine whether the Socialist Pedro Sánchez or conservative opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo becomes the next head of government. Hereu also appealed to people who care about Catalan self-government and Europe.
The minister believes high turnout is needed for a Socialist victory. He cited a figure of 75 to 76 per cent and compared it with the mobilisation at the 1982 election. This is his political expectation, not a forecast of the election result.
In the same interview, Hereu acknowledged that warnings about the conservative People’s Party and the right-wing Vox party were not enough on their own. His party also needed to put forward a positive programme. He named as an important issue housing policy: Alongside rules for the existing housing market, more permanently affordable housing needs to be built.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).