Podemos joins Ara Més-Front Ampli list in Baleares and closes door to further pacts

The Baleares deal

Podemos agreed on Sunday, 25 October, to join the Ara Més-Front Ampli coalition for the general elections in the Balearic Islands. Lucía Muñoz, the party's leader in the islands, will run as an independent in third place on the Mallorca list, behind Carme Gomila of Més and a Frente Amplio candidate who has not yet been named. Muñoz announced the deal on X, writing that Podemos and Ara Més had reached an agreement and that they, like ERC, had chosen to cooperate rather than compete. Podemos had earlier asked for second place and a rotating seat, conditions that stalled the talks, after which the party announced it would run separately. Gomila, who leads the list, described the agreement this way:

“All the forces have understood that the Balearic Islands have a particular political and territorial reality that requires dialogue, generosity and the capacity to reach agreements.”

Podemos rules out further pacts

Pablo Fernández, Podemos' organisation secretary and spokesman, told a press conference on Monday, 26 October, that the Baleares agreement would probably be the last before the registration deadline, which runs to midnight that day. The party plans its own lists in most constituencies for the Congress of Deputies. It has an agreement with ERC in Catalonia, where it holds places six and ten on the ERC list in Barcelona, and it has joined coalition lists in Canarias and the Comunitat Valenciana. For the Senate, Podemos will not field candidates in the Balearic Islands, Canarias, Catalonia or the Comunitat Valenciana. Fernández also criticised the PSOE and Frente Amplio deal for joint Senate lists in most constituencies. He condemned police charges against protesters in A Coruña, Avilés, Madrid, Zaragoza and Valencia during protests in the week of 19 October.

MÉS per Mallorca coordinator Lluís Apesteguia welcomed the deal and set his party's discreet negotiating style against the process elsewhere in Spain.

“At all times we argued that a joint candidacy of the sovereigntist and alternative left was necessary.”

Frente Amplio fields lists almost everywhere

Frente Amplio will present lists in every constituency except Teruel, where its regionalist partner Chunta Aragonesista, which leads the coalition in Aragón, withdrew. ABC counts 51 of the 52 constituencies that elect deputies to Congress. The coalition, which brings together up to 15 parties, faced objections from IU, which opposed the Teruel decision. Pablo Bustinduy, the campaign spokesman, avoided specifics on the lists and the number of provinces on Monday morning, saying the coalition would be the alternative left option across the country. Frente Amplio and Podemos share lists in three territories: Canarias, under the Unidad del Pueblo Canario label with Nueva Canarias, IU and Movimiento Sumar, where a link with Drago was still missing; the Comunitat Valenciana, under Compromís-Front Valencià; and the Balearic Islands. In the Senate, Frente Amplio, the PSOE and other left forces run joint 'Senado de progreso' lists in more than 40 constituencies, with Frente Amplio in second place. Frente Amplio still needs to name list heads in Galicia, Euskadi, Extremadura, Seville and Granada.

Key dates

The deadline for registering coalitions closed on 16 October. Until the last minute, Podemos and Frente Amplio were locked in a dispute over who would be blamed for the failed negotiation, and only the Comunitat Valenciana and Canarias produced joint candidacies. Podemos announced the Baleares agreement on Sunday, 25 October. The deadline for registering lists for the general elections expires at midnight on Monday, 26 October, and the vote is set for 29 November.

Frente Amplio has confirmed it will not stand in Teruel, a decision that has caused deep unease in IU Aragón, which had argued for running there.