PP and UPN agree in principle to run together in Navarre on 29 November

A preliminary deal pending ratification

The Partido Popular (PP) and Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) have reached a preliminary agreement to stand together in the general election of 29 November, according to sources at PP headquarters in Génova cited by EFE. The understanding still has to be ratified by UPN's internal bodies. UPN sources did not confirm the report and said the decision rests with the party's organs first, and UPN's political council was due to meet on the afternoon of 13 October. ABC reported that the alliance is not yet closed in definitive form and is awaiting ratification. La Razón said the deal would apply in the Foral Community of Navarre, where five seats in the Congress are contested.

Talks and the 2023 split

Sergio Sayas, who heads PP Navarra's management committee, said on Monday, 12 October that the parties were negotiating to run together. According to eldiario.es, UPN president Cristina Ibarrola and PP organisation secretary Miguel Tellado intensified their meetings in recent weeks. Ibarrola was at the Génova headquarters on Saturday, 10 October to settle the remaining details of the agreement. The alliance had dated back to 1982 before it broke in 2023.

Why they ran separately in 2023

That year UPN expelled deputies Sergio Sayas and Carlos García Adanero, who later joined the PP, and UPN decided to end the alliance and run alone. Splitting the right's vote helped the PSN win two of the five Navarre seats with 92,798 votes. EH Bildu, the PP and UPN each won one seat, and UPN and PP together had 108,247 votes.

The seat arithmetic

The aim of the coalition is three seats, which La Vanguardia says the parties have not achieved since the 2000 general election. The 2019 Navarra Suma coalition of UPN, PP and Ciudadanos won two seats, and the UPN-PP alliance also won two in 2015 and 2016. Eldiario.es argues that a third seat will be difficult to win because the rise of Vox makes it hard even in coalition. The 2019 seats went to Sayas and Adanero.

Remaining steps

Coalitions must be communicated by 16 October, and the lists must be certified before 28 October, when they will be published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado. The order of the lists is not yet known. In 2023 UPN demanded to keep the top slot in a hypothetical deal, and the PP rejected it. La Vanguardia also lists the margin of autonomy UPN would keep as an open question.