Movimiento Sumar co-coordinator and Congress spokesperson Verónica Barbero will run fourth on the Frente Amplio list in Madrid for the 29 November election, a place ratified by the executive on Wednesday, 21 October.
Más Madrid's Emilio Delgado said talks with the PSOE were 'in progress' to optimize results, and Gabriel Rufián (ERC) warned that joining PSOE lists would be the opposite of that goal.
Frente Amplio and the PSOE have agreed to run in coalition for the Senate except in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, and Frente Amplio says the talks do not extend to Congress.
Podemos will not join the coalition after Ione Belarra accused Frente Amplio of being 'subordinated to the PSOE', and Tesh Sidi, second on the Madrid list, called the stance unhelpful.
Ada Colau, the coalition's candidate for the Presidency of the Government, will head the Barcelona list with Ernest Urtasun second, breaking with the tradition that the candidate runs in Madrid.
Frente Amplio's list for the 29 November general election in Madrid will be headed by Emilio Delgado of Más Madrid, with Tesh Sidi of Sumar second and Toni Valero of IU third. Verónica Barbero, co-coordinator of Movimiento Sumar and the party's Congress spokesperson, will take fourth place, according to a party statement that the executive ratified on Wednesday, 21 October. One report spells her surname Martínez, but the party statement names her Barbero. Barbero won her 2023 seat for Pontevedra, a constituency that is harder to hold now that Podemos is running separately, so a place on the Madrid list is an easier route to a seat. Another source says the fifth place goes to Más Madrid and will most likely be held by Eduardo Fernández Rubiño, a councillor on Madrid city council.
“I assume the responsibility of representing all those people who want Spain to remain a benchmark of progress.”
In the statement she accused the right of wanting to reinstate censorship and control artistic production, pointing to Castilla y León. She also described Frente Amplio as diverse and cohesive, and said it stood for the best traditions of the left.
Ada Colau, the coalition's candidate for the Presidency of the Government, will head the Barcelona list with Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun second, breaking with the tradition that the prime ministerial candidate runs in Madrid. In Valencia, the unity list of Compromís, Frente Amplio, Podemos and ERC puts Àgueda Micó and Alberto Ibañez of Compromís at the top, with the third place going to IU. María Teresa Pérez, Podemos's regional coordinator, will head the Alicante list. In Madrid, Podemos has Irene Montero leading with Tito Morano, and Health Minister Mónica García has given up her place on the Frente Amplio lists. Heads of list for Andalusia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands were still unconfirmed in the reports.
In an interview with TVE's 'La Noche en 24h' in the week of 19 October, Emilio Delgado said talks with the PSOE were 'in progress' and aimed to 'optimize' and 'maximize' electoral results on the Congress lists. Asked whether the talks concerned adjusting candidates in some provinces, he said he supposed they were around that, while saying it was not his role to answer. On Wednesday, Gabriel Rufián responded in a post on X:
“Optimizing and maximizing results means giving them an alternative voting option.”
Rufián added that joining the PSOE's lists is exactly the opposite, and said many left-wing voters are fully aware of what is coming. Frente Amplio says its talks with the PSOE cover only coalition lists for the Senate, not Congress. The two parties have already agreed to run together for the Senate except in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. Rufián will include Podemos candidates as independents on the ERC list he leads.
Podemos will not join the coalition and runs under its own name, after its general secretary Ione Belarra accused Frente Amplio of being 'subordinated to the PSOE'. In an interview published on 20 October, Tesh Sidi said she was saddened by those words and accused Podemos of repeatedly criticizing progressive measures the two groups had voted for, such as the housing decrees whose rejection in Congress led to the election call of 5 October. She said Podemos should have prioritized keeping the left in government rather than Irene Montero's seat.
“Our priority is not Irene, with all due respect, nor ourselves either.”
Sidi also said that an agreement with Rufián was 'impossible', and ERC has not joined the coalition.
Registration of electoral lists opens on Wednesday, 21 October, and closes at midnight on Monday, 26 October, ahead of the 29 November vote. The Madrid top four places are now set by the coalition's statements, while the fifth place was described only as likely. The timeline below lists the dated milestones in the reports.
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Frente Amplio has set the top of its Madrid list for the 29 November election, with Verónica Barbero fourth, while ERC's Gabriel Rufián warned that putting candidates on PSOE lists would backfire.
AI text based on reports by eldiario.es, europa press, El Confidencial and other publishers. Changed .