Rufián and Montero embrace the Broad Front in the Islands: “We are the front”

PalmaThe public received Gabriel Rufián with a standing ovation, the rock star of the state left who landed this Friday in Mallorca. The republican embraced with the leader of Podemos, Irene Montero, the Broad Front at an event in Son Oliva (Palma). Although they face off against Ada Colau in most of the State and in Catalonia, in the Balearic Islands a unitary candidacy has been achieved after the intense negotiations of the Balearic eco-sovereigntists, federated under the acronym Ara Més. The former mayor of Barcelona held a rally on Sunday on her own and the three leaders avoided a joint photo, but the connecting link was precisely the head of the list for the Islands, Carme Gomila, who is also the leader of Esquerra in the Balearic Islands and participated in both events.

“There is no correct way to be practically anything,” stated the republican, who started the rally promising “provocation” and finished it by asking for the vote so that there is “a PSOE government subjected to the sovereignist lefts” of the State. Rufián intoned the mea culpa for not having achieved a unitary candidacy to the left of the PSOE in the whole of the State. “I would have liked it, I ask for all possible apologies, I flagellate myself, I have disappointed, agreed,” he admitted. Nevertheless, he added: “We are the front.” In this sense, he asked “that everyone vote progressive”: “There is good people everywhere.”

According to the organization, 1,500 people attended the event, which was held in the courtyard of a public school in a neighborhood that has an average income of between nearly 15,000 and 16,000 euros per person according to data from the National Statistics Institute for 2024. From a concentric stage, Rufián warned of the danger of the PP and Vox obtaining 210 deputies in the Congress of Deputies. "They represent the possibility of making constitutional changes," he warned. "If they have the possibility of destroying the pension, educational, and public health systems, outlawing us, and imprisoning us, will they do it or not?" he added: "They will do it".

Rufián cited Lluís Companys and Julio Anguita to advocate for the construction of a bloc against "fascism". Thus, he spoke of the "three problems that exist in this country: housing, housing, and housing". "There are 21 million people working more than ever, Spain generates more wealth than ever, but it is worse distributed than ever," he said: "What are macroeconomic data for, if people live in hovels?”.

For her part, Gomila boasted about the unitary agreement, signed in extremis on a Sunday afternoon. “We achieved something very powerful: that all the left-wing forces united on a single ballot for the working people of this land,” she asserted: “We have understood that we are living through a historic moment, that we are responsible and will rise to the occasion.”

The head of the list for the Islands denounced a “deception”: “They had told us that tourism would make us rich, but people cannot make ends meet.” She also threw a dart at the PSIB: “It looks the other way when it is time to make brave decisions; too many times its legs have trembled when it had to defend the working class of these Islands.” Faced with the doubts of left-wing voters, she admitted that they are “normal.” “People have doubts, are angry, tense, distressed,” she said: “At Ara Més we take responsibility for this distress and we are running to defend you.”

Irene Montero: “Guiris, go home”

In her speech, Montero, who is running as number one for Podemos for Madrid, denounced the contrast between the “private jets” that fly “100 a day, 15 every minute” over the skies of the Islands and the living conditions of the residents. “Your salary, your homes, your natural environment are a business,” she claimed. After defending the ban on house purchases by non-residents, Montero received an ovation from the public. The leader of the purple party also sent a message in line with the anti-massification protests of the platform Less Tourism, More Life. “Guiris, go home!”, she said in English: “Foreigners, the Balearic Islands are not Las Vegas, they are not your international coworking space”. In a call to the workers, she encouraged them to “dare” and be “ruthless with those at the top”.

Although at first Podemos was left out of the coalition because tensions with the Broad Front in Madrid complicated the negotiations, finally the number three spot on the list was ceded to the leader of the purple party in the Balearic Islands, Lucía Muñoz. All in all, the aspirations of the sovereignist space are currently to revalidate the seat they obtained in the Congress of Deputies in 2023, and it is unlikely that Muñoz will enter the lower house.