Podemos leader in Catalonia steps down after being sidelined for approaching pro-independence parties

The secretary general of left-wing Podemos in Catalonia, Albano-Dante Fachin, resigned from the party on Monday. He had been considering a joint candidacy with pro-independence parties for the December 21 elections, in order to give a joint response to the imprisonments and the Spanish government’s direct rule of Catalonia. Albano Dante-Fachin himself has come out as against independence; despite this, leader of the Podemos party in Spain, Pablo Iglesias, responded by defying Fachin’s attempts.

Iglesias imposed an internal vote for members in the Catalonia branch of the party – usually Fachin’s responsibily – on whether or not to form a coalition with Catalunya en Comú. This is the party of Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, and an organization publicly against unilateral independence.

Fachin denounced the “intervention” of his branch by the party headquarters in Madrid. He further stated that now, he and other Podemos Catalunya officials are holding talks with pro-independence left-wing ERC and CUP parties, in an effort to build up a joint candidacy. Indeed, ERC, the party of jailed Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, has already welcomed Fachin’s intentions of sitting on the table together. At the same time, Catalunya en Comú is seeking to join forces with Podemos, whose members will now decide the party’s fate in the internal vote, which ends this Wednesday.