Barcelona street violence becomes campaign issue ahead of 29 November vote

Street violence enters the campaign

Disturbances in Barcelona on the night of 24 October gave the Partido Popular (PP) a new line of attack on public order, and commentary notes that the PP has moved its campaign toward security. The PSOE has not put those events at the centre of its own campaign, which still rests on the socioeconomic framework and equality. The incidents were caused by groups with no direct link to any single party. Salvador Illa, leader of the PSC and president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, responded firmly, as did members of his government and Barcelona's Socialist mayor, Jaume Collboni. The Socialist mayors of A Coruña and Avilés, cities where public order was also seriously disrupted, took a similar stance.

Feijóo accuses the Socialists

On Sunday, 25 October, speaking in Salamanca, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said the Socialists were using violence to hold on to power. He did not develop the argument behind that claim, but he framed the disturbances as a sign that the left had lost the streets.

“The socialists are resisting giving up power, and to do so they justify violence.”

Feijóo also said the left's position on the streets had changed, and he presented himself as the guarantor of peace and security in a future government. Commentators note that Vox president Santiago Abascal had pushed the same security theme for several days before Feijóo spoke. Abascal described the young people who mobilise against his party's events, many of them minors, as Sánchez's militias.

“Since they have lost the street, they want to set it on fire.”

Campaign themes and polls

One column argues that the PSOE launched its campaign on housing and mass mobilisation, then moved quickly from one issue to the next, citing Ceuta, corruption, trains and immigration among the topics raised. The same commentary says the first weeks of polling have moved the PP down and the PSOE and Vox up. A poll by NC Report, cited in another commentary, gives the right between 206 and 210 seats and the left between 130 and 137. More than a month remains before the general election on 29 November, and the televised debates have not yet taken place.

Catalan financing and the Andalusian result

Commentary argues that the Catalan fiscal arrangement, known as the cupo catalán, will again weigh heavily on the national vote. It cites a post-electoral CIS survey that found the issue decisive in the recent Andalusian regional election. The PSOE won 52% of the vote in the first Andalusian election in 1982 and 40% in 2012, before Pedro Sánchez led the party. This year it took 22.7%, its worst result in its history, according to the same column.

1982 (first Andalusian election)52%

201240%

2026 Andalusian election22.7%

1982 (first Andalusian election)

52 %

2012

40 %

2026 Andalusian election

22.7 %

Data from the article text