The former mayor of Barcelona and candidate for the Broad Front in the general elections on November 29, Ada Colau, lamented this Thursday that the leadership of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) did not agree to negotiate a unitary list of the left after a call from the Comuns, a stance that, as she summarized, closed the door to any conversation: "The answer was that they don't even want to sit down to talk".
In an interview granted to Catalunya Ràdio, Ada Colau explained that it was she herself who asked the leadership of the Comuns to contact the leadership of ERC to explore a candidacy that she has defined as anti-fascist, after having spoken with the republican candidate for the elections, Gabriel Rufián.
Colau maintained that the republican leadership rejected the proposal in a "resounding" manner and urged Gabriel Rufián to continue defending that option within his party, with the aim of the party joining the Broad Front.
"I want to strongly encourage Gabriel Rufián to fight within his party because I believe he now has the ascendancy, he has the strength of popular support, to propose this anti-fascist candidacy. But, of course, Gabriel Rufián must do that with Esquerra", said the candidate of the Broad Front.
Podemos and the possibility of resignations
Asked if she contemplates the Comuns renouncing to run in Catalonia to concentrate the vote on ERC, Ada Colau ruled out that option and defended that those who do not want to reach agreements should not be rewarded.
"We should not do what is rewarding those who do not want agreements", Colau affirmed in the interview.
Regarding whether she considers renouncing to be a candidate for the Broad Front in case she fails to get Podemos to join the coalition, the former mayor assured that she is not "in that hypothesis".
Defense of the coalition until the last moment
Ada Colau insisted that she will maintain her defense of a single candidacy "until the last minute of Friday", the deadline for the registration of electoral coalitions, and reiterated that she will continue working for the different forces of the left to run united in the elections on November 29.
