Rufián wants Podemos and ERC united to pressure the PSOE, but not an electoral coalition for the Europeans

MADRID, 18 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The spokesperson for Esquerra Republicana (ERC) in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, has expressed his wish that Podemos and ERC, together with Bildu and the BNG, can work together to pressure PSOE to comply with its agreements, but has He specified that with this he is not proposing an electoral coalition with a view to the European elections of 2024.

In this week's investiture debate, Rufián took advantage of his speech to congratulate Podemos ministers, Ione Belarra and Irene Montero, whose continuity in the coalition government seems very unlikely. "I applaud you and I hope we can join together," he said, words that some interpreted as a possible nod to an electoral coalition.

And Podemos has refused to dissolve into Sumar and, if its leaders leave the Government, it will feel free to set its own profile in Congress with the option of running separately in the 2024 European elections. On the eve of the general elections of July, from En Comú they already reported that the purple formation threatened to seek a coalition with ERC, something that Podemos denied.

In statements to the 'Parliament' program on Radio Nacional, reported by Europa Press, Rufián specifies that with those words he was not referring "far from it" to a hypothetical coalition between Podemos and ERC, but rather to collaborate together to force the PSOE to comply with its commitments.

As he recalled, in the last legislature there were already moments in which ERC and Podemos, with Bildu, the BNG and sometimes the PNV, have "put pressure" on the PSOE to try to get Pedro Sánchez to comply with his agreements and that 'front' should continue. "I think we have gone hand in hand in many things and the more we are, the better," he says.

Rufián does not include Sumar in that equation and believes that "a government that declares itself progressive every day will greatly miss" Belarra and Montero, who have done "an extraordinary job" and "have been very brave." "It is very bad news that they are not there," he says.

In his opinion, the disagreements of the Podemos ministers have been interpreted "in a self-servingly erroneous way", as if they were going too far with "poor Pedro Sánchez", when what they were doing was asking for the agreements to be fulfilled.