Catalunya en Comú
Catalunya en Comú, previously Un País en Comú and collectively dubbed as Comuns, is a Catalan-based political party established in December 2016 as an umbrella for Barcelona en Comú, Initiative for Catalonia Greens, United and Alternative Left and Equo, which until then had been collaborating through electoral alliances under the Catalunya Sí que es Pot and En Comú Podem labels in the [2015 Catalan language|Catalan regional election|September 2015 regional] and December 2015 and June 2016 general elections.
Its spokesman until 2018 was En Comú Podem's spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies, Xavier Domènech, with the new party being sponsored by Mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau. It contested the 2017 Catalan regional election under the Catalunya en Comú–Podem label, in coalition with Podemos, then joined the En Comú Podem alliance ahead of the April and November 2019 Spanish general elections.
History
The first steps for constituting the political space previously represented by the Catalunya Sí que es Pot and En Comú Podem alliances into a permanent political party can be traced to January 2016, when the party's trademark was provisionally registered in the interior ministry and Mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau announced her intention of establishing her own, autonomous party separate from Podemos. On 19 December 2016, the "Un País en Comú" platform was launched with the aim of constituting the political space previously represented by the Catalunya Sí que es Pot and En Comú Podem alliances into a permanent political party.The platform's establishment had been supported by Initiative for Catalonia Greens, United and Alternative Left, Barcelona en Comú and Equo, with it holding its first public event on 29 January 2017 in Barcelona, and the party's founding congress on 8 April. Organizational disagreements in March over the voting system selected to elect the leadership team and the ideological principles that should govern the new platform had seen regional Podemos/Podem leader, Albano Dante Fachin, opting out of the founding congress at the last moment, promising future collaboration with the other constituent parties but rejecting to integrate Podem into the new party. Despite this, several Podem members disaffected with Fachin's leadership, such as Jéssica Albiach o Marc Bertomeu, did join the new party on their own accord.
The definitive name of the party was to be chosen in a voting among party members following the founding assembly, with several proposals being registered in advance to prevent a similar case as what happened to the "Guanyem" trademark in 2014: Catalunya en Comú, En Comú Podem, En Comú or Comuns. In a final voting held on 22 May 2017, name "Catalunya en Comú" was picked by party members over "En Comú Podem" in a 54–46% vote.
Ideology
Catalunya en Comú is considered to be a democratic socialist party with an emphasis on social equality, strengthening of the welfare state, expansive fiscal policy and in favor of degrowth and redistributive mesures. As a merger of several parties, they come from a eurocommunist, left-wing ecologist and anti-austerity tradition. They have their main political hold in the city of Barcelona and its metro area, and therefore they hold strong municipalist stances and tend to focus on urban issues. The party is a strong supporter of feminism, environmentalism, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and the fight against racism and colonialism. Given this, they are considered anti-fascist and are strong supporters of the Palestinian cause. They are pro-european, but they are critical of the Union's more neoliberal stances.Catalunya en Comú is a catalanist party and therefore defends the status of Catalonia as a nation, is in favor of further devolution to the Catalan government and advocates for a Catalan-favoring language policy. The party, however, is considered to not be either pro-independence nor anti-independence, often classified as "other", leaving the issue up to the individual members and supporters. Mostly, both its leaders and voting base are in favor of Catalan statehood but not full separation from Spain and propose a federalist or confederalist relationship with the rest of Spain. Despite this, significant leaders and close to 25% of voters are pro-independence. The party, nevertheless, does openly support the celebration of an independence referendum.