Gabriel Rufián emerges as the favorite candidate of the Spanish left-wing parties

Given the particularities of Spanish politics, the left gets along well with peripheral nationalist movements. This has reached its peak expression with the "Frankenstein" government, which has managed to unite parties like Sumar with PNV. Among these friendships, one of the strongest has been Gabriel Rufián's with the Spanish left and, in particular, with Podemos.

No one can deny that Rufián is one of the most applauded figures by Podemos's orbit. At the time, this even led to speculation about possible joint lists for the European elections. Meanwhile, Rufián lets himself be courted.

Recently, figures from Podemos's media space have once again circulated the idea that Rufián could unite the entire left. This is how Rubén Hood, a journalist from Podemos's newspaper and self-described as a "media activist," expressed it on social media:

This message went very viral, reaching nearly three million views. In other words, it struck a nerve. One of the responses could only come from Rufián himself. Instead of saying anything, Rufián simply posted a photo of the person who, in his opinion, should unite the left: Irene Montero:

The market tends to concentration

This situation between Rufián and Podemos is indicative of a larger dynamic. We refer to the progressive but steady loss of influence of the "woke" left and the sovereigntist lefts (especially in Catalonia). This leads competitors to be unable to split the market and to have to cooperate.

The goal would be none other than to build a kind of grand coalition with all the already known ideological labels. "Plurinational," "sovereigntist," fighting the "far right," etc. In this context, a profile like Rufián's becomes very valuable for two reasons.

The first is that he is a very media-savvy figure and perfectly integrated into the Spanish media ecosystem. The second is that Rufián, in line with Junqueras's strategy, chose to have a discourse more leftist than nationalist. The price of this strategy is to fail in Catalonia and succeed in Madrid.