Podemos and ERC have presented their electoral arrangement at a Barcelona rally without forming a coalition. Podemos will stay off the Catalan ballot while Gabriel Rufián campaigns for the party elsewhere in Spain.
About 2,000 people attended the launch rally in La Guineueta, in Barcelona’s Nou Barris district, on 24 October. The event brought Podemos candidate Irene Montero and ERC candidate Gabriel Rufián together for the first time in the campaign. Their arrangement for Spain’s general election on 29 November 2026 provides electoral support across Spain but stops short of a coalition. It followed unsuccessful talks among parties to the left of the PSOE on creating a single list.
The practical exchange is clear. Podemos will not stand in Catalonia under its own name; selected party figures will appear as independents on ERC lists. In Barcelona, Sabadell en Comú Podem councillor Alejandra Sandoval is in sixth position, while Podem Catalunya coordinator María Pozuelo is listed tenth. In return, Rufián is set to campaign alongside Montero at Podemos events outside Catalonia. The parties remain organisationally separate, with distinct candidacies beyond their agreed cooperation.
The deal has drawn criticism from within ERC and the Catalan independence movement. Rufián defended cooperation with the Spanish left by invoking the antifascist commitments of Lluís Companys and Francesc Macià. He also joked that Irene Montero has considerable influence inside Podemos, while he has little sway in his own party. ABC reported that Rufián acknowledged the criticism and said he had been attacked from all sides.
Montero’s sharpest political attack targeted the PSOE’s place on a shared Senate ballot. She argued that a left-wing list alongside the Socialists would not solve voters’ problems. Rufián turned to the PSC, saying it had not earned the benefit of a tactical vote. Both leaders called for pressure on the PSOE from its left; EFE reported that they described their side as the front. They also criticised the Frente Amplio, with Rufián claiming that his side represented it.
The rally’s programme offered few specific measures. Montero proposed raising the minimum wage to €1,800 and cutting the working week to 30 hours. Both candidates backed expropriating vulture funds and put housing at the centre of their message.
Montero also attacked Alberto Núñez Feijóo over comments on Cadena SER in which he proposed abolishing the Ministry of Equality and reopening debate on abortion. She challenged his description of himself as a feminist because he had been raised by women, arguing that women bear the burden of care.
Rufián took aim at Junts per Catalunya, accusing it of voting alongside PP and Vox 44 times against Catalonia’s working class. He also recalled Junts criticising ERC for giving the PSOE its votes for nothing, even though ERC had secured pardons for Junts leaders. The argument over the PSOE’s place in left-wing politics has also featured in coverage of the party’s debate commitments.
