Gabriel Rufián defended Pedro Sánchez this Friday against what he considers a judicial persecution through his family environment, while warning the PSOE that the Koldo case could take its toll in the general elections on November 29. "What I ask of the citizens is to vote progressive, but to vote with memory," said the spokesperson for Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) in Congress and head of the list for Barcelona.
Rufián made these statements before presenting his book 'How to beat the fascists (Read before voting)', in the auditorium of the General Union of Workers (UGT), in Madrid, together with communicator Sarah Santaolalla. Asked about the cases affecting Begoña Gómez and David Sánchez, the president's wife and brother, the republican described them as "absolutely miserable". He also maintained that a part of the judicial, media, and police power acts against the Government.
The warning to the PSOE for the 'Koldo case'
Sánchez's defense was accompanied by a reproach to the socialists for their response to corruption cases. "The left cannot steal", said Rufián, who believes that these episodes particularly penalize progressive forces. His words come a day after the Civil Guard arrested six people, later released, in a new part of the 'Koldo case' opened in the Audiencia Nacional. The agents searched the home of former minister José Luis Ábalos, who is serving a sentence for the mask case.
The ERC spokesperson also commented on the alleged offer of one million euros that Koldo García attributes to a PP lawyer in exchange for information against the Government. Rufián said that the story seems credible to him and that it reminds him of "mafia practices". The PP denies having made the offer and the PSOE is studying legal action to investigate it.
The republican also questioned the high-speed maintenance model after it was revealed that the European Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating possible fraud with funds to renovate the Madrid-Seville line, where the Urda accident occurred. Rufián criticized the liberalization of the railway and the weight of subcontractors in Adif, whom he accuses of precarious maintenance. The Prosecutor's investigations focus on the use of European funds and run parallel to the investigation into the causes of the accident.
Housing and networks to dispute the vote with the far-right
Housing has been the point where Rufián has asked the left for more self-criticism. In his opinion, it "has failed as far as housing is concerned". The candidate has linked the advance of the far-right with the discomfort of a part of the working class that ends up "blaming someone poorer than you for how poor you are," instead of looking towards those who have more power.
That is one of the discussions he raises in the book, where he defends a common front from the left to stop the far-right. In Madrid, he has also claimed the need to dispute attention on social networks and has explained who he wants to reach with his interventions. "Many people today come home from work looking at their mobile phone and I aspire or try to get them to watch my videos," he said.
