ERC MP Gabriel Rufián mocks Podemos voters in X post

Gabriel Rufián, an MP for ERC in the Spanish Congress, posted a message on X linking being deceived three times with voting for Podemos. The post spread as a jab at the party's voters.

The ERC MP in Congress **Gabriel Rufián** published on his X account a message comparing repeated deception with voting for Podemos. The phrase, spread as a mockery of the party's voters, reads: "If they deceive you once, it's the other person's fault; if they deceive you twice, it's your fault; if they deceive you three times, you'll probably go and vote for PODEMOS".

## What the post actually says

The text trinc a three-step structure. The first two steps share the blame between the deceiver and the deceived. The third takes the leap: it attributes to the victim of a third deception the intention of voting for Podemos. It mentions no offices, elections or specific dates.

The post does not explain which deceptions it refers to. Nor does it clarify whether it is talking about current voters or a hypothetical one. It is a self-contained phrase, with no link or added argument.

## The political context of the remark

Rufián is an MP for **ERC** (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, a Catalan pro-independence left-wing party) in Congress and one of the most recognisable voices of Catalan independence-minded left. Podemos, for its part, has been through a difficult electoral cycle since its emergence in 2014.

The remark comes at a time of realignment in the space to the left of the PSOE (Spain's main centre-left party), with moves and deals affecting several parties. That is the terrain on which the message is read.

## Why a remark like this spreads

An MP attacking another party's voters has legs. The phrase makes the voter responsible for their own deception, and that is what makes it circulate: it does not debate policies, it points at people.

The message offers no data or proposals. It works as a label. And in politics, labels travel faster than arguments.