In the past –understanding as such any period prior to 2015– the tie was a work uniform by default for its male lordships, but since that year that everything changed in the Spanish Courts, it is a choice and not a custom. Today it is more an ideological stamp than a dress code, and Esquerra's spokesman, Gabriel Rufián, has served these years as a conscientious objector. So the coloratura of the conference that he offered last night at the Club Siglo XXI in Madrid was marked by the seriousness of the chosen outfit, which added a barrette to the sober navy blue tie.
Pomp in the clothing and solemnity in the speech: Rufián avoided the immediate and raised a reflection on the historical situation, the rise of the extreme right, the duties of the left, the media dynamics, the outbreak of democracy and the usefulness of politics . He avoided current affairs and arguments, which only appeared when asked by the press: “dialogue”, “table”, “memory”.
With that usual boastful aplomb in his resounding rhetoric –efficient as a digital evangelist–, at times it was hard to remember that we were listening to the spokesman and ERC in Congress and not to the thriving leader of a new possibilistic left, in competition with the successive charismas of the vice presidents of United We Can, Pablo Iglesias and Yolanda Díaz, to whom he left his little notes: "There is nothing that gives more laziness than a politician talking about the media" and "without a militancy, a history and some colleagues, the candidates are nothing ”. Respectively. His oratory took on a Latin American air in the dispute over conventional signifiers – “school, work and family” –, to fight the right for social ill humor, and called politics its main duty: “Fill the refrigerators” .
Whether it was a coming-out or a prom, it was impossible not to think that Gabriel Rufián left the luxurious Eurobuilding hotel last night loaded with plans for the future. Stay tuned.
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