Aina Vidal, Congress spokeswoman and the party's 2023 general election candidate, will not run for Congress on 29 November. She will stay as party spokeswoman and campaign actively.
The Comuns statement reported 66% in favour, 34% against and 20 blank votes, while LaVanguardia, El Periódico and El Mundo reported 59% in favour, 31% against and 10% abstaining.
Ada Colau leads the Barcelona list, with Ernest Urtasun second and Júlia Miralles third. Colau and Urtasun's tandem received 94% backing from the council, according to El Periódico.
Of the seven current Comuns deputies in Congress, only Júlia Boada in Girona and Viviane Ogou in Barcelona are running again, with Ogou seventh on the Barcelona list.
The national council of Comuns, the Catalan ecosocialist party in the Frente Amplio coalition, approved its candidate lists for the 29 November general election in all four Catalan provinces. Ada Colau, the former Barcelona mayor, heads the Barcelona list, with Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun in second place. The party's own statement gave the lists 66% in favour, 34% against and 20 blank votes. LaVanguardia, El Periódico and El Mundo instead reported 59% in favour and 31% against, with 10% abstaining, so the accounts of the vote differ.
Colau and Urtasun were approved as a tandem with 94% backing, according to El Periódico, but the rest of the list drew far more resistance. Sources cited by El Periódico said some council members objected that Barcelona city had too much weight on the list and that no primaries had been held.
Aina Vidal, the Comuns spokeswoman in Congress and the party's candidate in the 2023 general election, will not run again. LaVanguardia notes that she has been a deputy since 2015 and was one of the deputy spokespeople of Sumar this legislature. The party says she will remain spokeswoman and will take an active part in the campaign. Several party sources told EL PAÍS that the decision was not Vidal's own choice. Vidal wrote on social media that she would not continue in Congress.
“A new stage begins and I will not continue in the Congress of Deputies.”
Gabriel Rufián, the ERC leader in Madrid and head of his party's list for the vote, praised her work in the chamber.
“One of the best parliamentarians Catalonia has had in all that time, tough but fair, and a great person.”
Behind Colau and Urtasun in Barcelona come Júlia Miralles in third place, Andrés García Berrio in fourth, Lucía Martín in fifth and Joan Mena in sixth, with Viviane Ogou seventh. Júlia Boada again heads the Girona list, Ester Roca leads in Tarragona and Montse Cortassa in Lleida. Of the seven current Comuns deputies in Congress, only Boada and Ogou are running again, which LaVanguardia says leaves Ogou few chances of returning to the chamber. Gerardo Pisarello is also not running for Congress, because he is the Barcelona en Comú candidate for mayor of Barcelona in the municipal elections of May 2027.
Asked about Vidal's absence, Urtasun played it down and said that drawing up lists is complex in every party.
“There are several people on the list who are not running again.”
Urtasun said the coalition would fight for every progressive vote in the Congress races, while the deal with the PSOE on Senate lists in some provinces would secure a progressive majority in the upper house. He added that Comuns would count on Vidal, Candela López, Eloi Badia and Gerardo Pisarello for the campaign, even though none of them are running again.
The party's statement set out its campaign pillars: the right to housing, better wages, stronger public services and the defence of democracy against the far right. The lists will run under the name Comuns-Front Ampli.
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Comuns' national council approved candidate lists for the 29 November general election, with Ada Colau heading the Frente Amplio ticket in Barcelona. Congress spokeswoman Aina Vidal is not on the lists, a decision that has split the party.
AI text based on reports by EL MUNDO, europa press, eldiario.es and other publishers. Published .