The candidacy of En Comú Podem in Barcelona underwent an earthquake this Friday, when the head of the list, Jaume Asens, announced that he was not running again and that he would leave institutional politics. Asens's decision has coincided with a debate that has opened up in the last few hours about the continuity of the lawyer, because a sector of the party has sought to replace him with Aina Vidal, who has been a member of Congress since 2015. In the end, this second option has won the battle, and Asens has accepted the party will and did not want to open up a controversy.
In a farewell letter of thanks, Asens did not directly mention the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, but did mention the current mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and the founder of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias. "I want to give my thanks for the support of all the people with whom I have worked side by side these years both at Barcelona city council and in the Congress of Deputies. And very especially to mayor Ada Colau and former deputy PM Pablo Iglesias. Without their drive and confidence, I would never have decided to take a step forward", he admitted.
Asens stated diplomatically that abandoning institutional politics "was the best option" because there are people who can lead the Comuns in Madrid "better than myself in the new cycle that is opening". In this regard, he referred to the participation in the Sumar candidacy of parties such as Mes per Mallorca, from the Balearic Islands, or Compromís, of Valencia. "No one is indispensable. There are times when you need to know how to step aside to allow other leaderships, who can connect better with the new times, take over and put collective interests before individual ones," he remarked. And he stressed that from now on "he will work from the grass roots" because politics "does not end in the institutions". "I started my political commitment in the social movements and it is from there that I will continue the fight to build a more republican, ecological, free and fair feminist society", he added. Asens, who has a sovereignist profile, was the lawyer who recommended to the minister in exile Toni Comín to approach Gonzalo Boye as a lawyer to advise the exiled Catalan leadership.
Asens have his support to the candidacy of Aina Vidal, who he says "comes from union struggles and knows what it means to work hard". And he attributed the need to step aside to his conviction "that the future will be feminist or there won't be one". "The feminist wave is here to stay. Now is the time for women to take the lead," he said. After Aina Vidal, the number two and three on the list will be Gerardo Pisarello and Gala Pin, with Pisarello a current MP in Madrid and both of them former Barcelona city councillors with Asens.