Puente says PSOE will be first force on 29 November and leads Valladolid list

Puente expects a PSOE win on 29 November

Spain's transport minister Óscar Puente said on Friday that the Socialists (PSOE) will be the first political force in the general elections of 29 November. He said the party's data supports that view, and that he worked out on Thursday, 1 October, that an election would be called after talking with Pedro Sánchez while he was in the United States. Puente said the PSOE's internal figures differ from the private estimates that have been published, and that progressive voters who have stayed home can still be brought back in the more than 50 days left before the vote.

The PSOE will be the first political force on 29 November.

Polls show PP and Vox ahead

Polls published on Friday point to a different result. A 40dB poll gives the PP 132 seats and projects PP and Vox together at 198. A separate survey published the same day gives the two parties a comfortable absolute majority of close to 200 seats. Puente said the 40dB figures "do not match" the data the PSOE holds.

Minister of the Presidency Félix Bolaños, interviewed by RAC1, also dismissed the surveys. He cited internal PSOE polling and said there were "very favourable movements" for the party. He joked that Spain has had presidents chosen by polls, naming Albert Rivera and Pablo Casado, and said he hopes Alberto Núñez Feijóo joins that club. Bolaños called for mobilisation and said the vote also decides whether the government will again include far-right ministers, something he said has not happened since the dictatorship.

There cannot be fatigue among the electorate when so much is at stake.

Housing and the decision to call elections

In a Cadena SER interview, Puente acknowledged that "right now Spain is not guaranteeing the right to decent housing." He said the government lacks the tools to solve the housing crisis and that this is why elections were called. He set out two routes: a public housing stock large enough to push prices down, which he said the government does not yet have but is working on, and a regulatory framework to cap prices, where he said the government's capacity is "very limited".

We do not have the tools to solve the problem, and that is why elections have been called.

Puente blamed Partido Popular regional governments and city councils, which he said refuse to apply housing laws, and said parliament has a limited margin to act. In the same interview he referred to the death of an elderly woman evicted in Madrid, describing her case as a catalyst for regulatory change. He criticised the PP for refusing a minute of silence in the capital.

Valladolid list and left unity

Puente confirmed he will head the PSOE list for Congress in Valladolid, where he is the provincial party secretary, and ruled out the top spot in Alicante, where rumours had placed him. He also ruled out returning as Valladolid mayor in the May municipal elections, saying "it is not an option" because he has other responsibilities. Rumours in Madrid suggest he could replace Sánchez as party leader depending on the PSOE's results on 29 November.

It would be very badly understood if he did not head the Valladolid list.

On the left, Puente urged Frente Amplio and Podemos to agree a single candidacy and to put egos aside, saying the left still has some homework to do. He declined to take a position on Ada Colau's leadership of Frente Amplio, saying that the party itself must decide. He also responded to a PP video about his leg injury during a site visit as Valladolid mayor, saying nobody should laugh at another person's physical pain. He said he was most hurt that the current Valladolid mayor, Jesús Julio Carnero, retweeted it.