The Popular Party's Valencia pick

On Friday, 23 October, Valencia mayor María José Catalá confirmed in a video shared on her social media accounts that she will head the Popular Party (PP) list for the Valencia constituency in the general election of 29 November. The national leadership's choice closed one of the open questions on the party's lists in the Valencian Community. El Mundo reports that Catalá said the proposal came from the party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. El Diario.es says the decision was unveiled three hours before the party's first major campaign event in the city. In the video she summed up her position in one line:

“Yes, it is an honour to accompany the next president of the Government of Spain. Valencia says yes. For Spain.”

Staying mayor and seeking re-election

Catalá also said she will remain mayor of Valencia and run again in the municipal elections of May 2027. Her wording on the point was direct:

“I will remain mayor of Valencia, serving the city and its residents, and also from May 2027.”

El Confidencial notes that electoral law does not force her to give up the mayoralty, unlike Pilar Bernabé, who had to leave her post as government delegate because that role cannot be combined with a candidacy. The PP statutes, in article 12, bar deputies from also serving as mayors of municipalities above 20,000 inhabitants. The same article allows exceptions in extraordinary cases, which the party's National Executive Committee authorises. Valencia has about 800,000 inhabitants, according to the same outlet. Catalá will combine both roles.

The rival list and the PSOE

The Socialists had already named Bernabé, now the former government delegate and a candidate for mayor of Valencia, to head their Valencia list. El Confidencial links that choice to Pedro Sánchez, who wanted to maximise the PSOE's result in the Valencian Community. El Mundo frames the Valencian contest as a preview of the municipal battle in the city in 2027. Susana Camarero, Generalitat vice president and a trusted figure for Feijóo, had been rumoured as a possible top candidate, but she stays in the regional government under president Juanfran Pérez Llorca. El País adds that Feijóo had preferred Catalá as the PP's candidate for the Generalitat, a plan dropped to keep the Valencia mayoralty. Miguel Barrachina, the regional government's spokesman, called Catalá as mayor "formidable" when asked about the option, and said he did not know how the lists had been drawn up.

Campaign launch in Valencia

El País reports that the rally was scheduled for Friday at 6pm at the Palau de les Arts in the Valencian capital, with Feijóo and Pérez Llorca. El Confidencial reads the decision as a sign of nerves inside the party, which says it needs to field its strongest candidates. Catalá tied the move to the stakes of the vote in a message on her Instagram account:

“When everything is at stake, you have to be willing to do what is necessary.”

El País compares the choice with the party's decision to put Xavier Albiol, mayor of Badalona, at the top of the Barcelona list, while noting that how long Albiol would keep his Congress seat remains unclear. El Confidencial argues that Catalá's and Bernabé's candidacies turn the Valencian contest into what it calls a virtual first round of the local elections, due in roughly six months.