“Nobody who is part of Catalunya en Comú or Podem Catalunya goes on their own, nowhere do we present ourselves this time separately“, explains to EL PERIÓDICO the national coordinator of the Comuns, Candela Lopez. He points out that it took more than a year of work to get to this point and “generosity” of both the territories and the party leaderships to agree on candidates who four years ago competed among themselves and get them to go together under the name of In Comú Podemthe coalition brand with which they intend to end the scattering of acronyms of the last years.
The space situation in Catalonia is, at the moment, an oasis if compared to the fratricidal competition that is being fought between Podemos and the parties that orbit to the left of the PSOE, which will inevitably face each other on rival lists in key territories such as Madrid, Valencia or Andalusia. If the party led by Colau has been clear about one thing, it is that could not be repeated in the case of Catalonia a divisions scenario that four years ago made them lose their representation or reduced their presence in some key municipalities.
Candela López: “No one who is part of Catalunya en Comú or Podem Catalunya goes on their own, nowhere do we present ourselves separately this time”
At that time, there was reluctance from actors such as Podem Catalunya or ICV, which in some territories resisted diluting their identity by competing under the umbrella of the Comuns, as well as irresolvable discrepancies with the EUiA and with leaders such as Joan Josep Nuet and Elisenda Alamany, already emancipated from the purples and who are now allied with ERC. Now, in addition to retaining the 16 mayoralties they hold -with Barcelona as the jewel in the crown but also other emblematic inherited from ICV such as Prat de Llobregat, Montcada i Reixac and Santa Perpètua de Mogoda-, they have focused on easing tensions and solidifying internal alliances.
In Terrassa and in Sant Cugat del Valles, where the Comuns competed with Podem in two different candidacies, they were left directly without any councilor. This time, they will be presented in a single list. In Sabadellparadigm of the division of the left, came to compete in 2019 divided into up to four different candidacies, and this time they are unified with Joan Mena, deputy in Congress, as a candidate, despite the fact that a leader who was expelled from Podem is also running on her own.
A difficult agreement in Cerdanyola and Sant Boi
In Cerdanyola del Valles and in Sant Boi de Llobregat, they admit, the agreement has been especially expensive, which has been one of the last to be sealed. Of the total of 174 candidacies that the space has registered, in some 160 they are presented with the name of En Comú Podem. In cases like Badia del Valles either Sant Adria de Besos present themselves with candidacies with singular names -Totes fem Badia and Sant Adrià in Comú- and have joined forces with independents in Terres de l’Ebre (Movem) or with municipal progress in Pallejà and Castellbisbal. In a dozen municipalities it has been agreed that their members join the lists of other parties.
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The leadership of the Comuns admits that it has not achieved the initial challenge of reaching 200 candidacies because it has put an end to the fragmentation and because in the end their relatives from Amposta, Banyoles, Castellar or Ripollet. However, they highlight that 80% of the population in Catalonia will have the option of voting for their candidacies -they have placed special emphasis on the metropolitan area and in cities such as Hospitalet-, which concur in 62 of the 67 municipalities of more than 20,000 inhabitants and in more than 50% of the county capitals. Although its maximum implementation is in the veguerías of Barcelona, Penedès and TarragonaThey have more difficulties in Central Catalonia and in the regions of Lleida and of the Pyrenees.
The all or nothing of Barcelona
Even so, they hope that with the unity achieved this time with Podem they will exceed the 103 municipal groups that they currently have and, therefore, the number of 264 councilors with which they now have. “We hope that the effort is translated into the result and that the consolidation process that we have faced here going together will serve to end the noise in the rest of the State,” says López. In fact, the Comuns boast of having Yolanda Díaz to face a campaign that is a all or nothing for Colauin the same way that Barcelona is the cornerstone for space in Catalonia, but also for Sumar.