In the neighbourhood of Sants, the place where the party was born 92 years ago, and under a few drops of summer rain, the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) has kicked off the race for the July 23rd Spanish general election with Gabriel Rufián as headliner but accompanied at all times by his number two, Teresa Jordà. This event was attended by a large part of the party's top brass to hear their representatives emphasize the importance of this election, for which the Republicans are not doing well in the polls. With the threat of pro-independence abstention and with the PSC making constant calls to gather the useful vote against the threat of PP and Vox, Rufián has elevated this electoral date as an appointment with history in which for Catalans, and democrats in general, even their human rights are at stake.
And the ERC leader in Madrid, continuing with his usual tone, focused his speech on criticizing not only the right and the PSOE, but also Sumar, standing up for Podemos minister Irene Montero, who was vetoed from the lists of the leftist coalition by Yolanda Diaz. For this reason, he called for the vote for his party in these elections, since "always, but now more than ever, voting for ERC means fighting fascism". Thus, according to Rufián, or "the boy from Santaco" as Teresa Jordà put it, with the Republican ballot paper it will be possible to stop "not only the black Spain of PP and Vox, but also the gray Spain of the PSOE and PP".
And, to counteract the efforts of the Catalan Socialists in this pre-campaign to establish themselves as the only useful vote against an possible government by Feijóo and Abascal, Rufián called out that the key is not to give strength to Pedro Sánchez, since "if he can, he will reach an accord with the right", but "vote ERC to force him to agree with its left". In the same vein, Rufián warned that Catalans cannot vote for "pious lies" such as what he defines as "supposed Spanish progressivism", lamenting that a Socialist victory, as predicted by the polls, would be a "national humiliation".