"I am convinced that, if the majority of Parliament turns its back on the citizens, the citizens must elect a new Parliament. We need a Parliament with a different, much larger majority, and that is the reason for the electoral call," Pedro Sánchez warned on Tuesday, after announcing the advance to November 29 the day before.
The President of the Government seeks a new progressive majority in Congress, but also in the Senate, where the absolute majority of the PP imposed budget vetoes in Sánchez's mandates, blockages in the renewal of constitutional bodies such as the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the constant disapproval of ministers, and an endless number of investigative commissions to squeeze out the scandals of alleged corruption of the PSOE.
Faced with 29-N, however, the PSOE has opened up to explore formulas to try to avoid a repeat of this absolute majority of the PP in the Senate, with the presentation of joint candidacies with other formations to its left, in order to expand its representation in the Upper House, as confirmed to La Vanguardia by socialist sources and from other parties that are studying joining.
“We have all seen the spurious use that the PP has made of the Senate in this legislature,” they argue in Ferraz, where they point out that they are analyzing “all the alternatives and scenarios to win in both Congress and the Senate.”
The negotiations between the PSOE and other left-wing groups to articulate unitary candidacies for the Senate are in their first steps, and plagued with difficulties, but they have already started, with the urgency of electoral precipitation. Although it is precisely the imminence of the 29-N elections that once again puts on the table the need to promote this formula of joint lists to make the votes profitable and increase the representation of progressive formations in the Senate.
Socialist sources recall that, in the elections to the Upper House, the party that wins takes three of the four directly elected senators in each province, the second party wins the fourth seat, and the votes for the rest of the formations are lost. Therefore, a majority of joint leftist lists could change the composition of the Senate, and avoid the current control of the PP.
There is a recent, and successful, precedent in the 2023 general elections: the PSOE, Sumar, Esquerra Unida and Ara Eivissa joined forces in Ibiza and Formentera, and snatched a senator from the PP. This time, Formentera will elect its own senator for the first time on 29-N.
The intention is to begin by determining how many constituencies it is interesting to extend the formula to for the objective to take effect: it could be up to 30. The priority is Madrid, but in other territories the pact is almost certain, such as in the Balearic Islands between the PSIB and Ara Més.
In the PSC, however, they do not consider it. In Catalonia, in the last general elections, they were just over a thousand votes away from achieving one more senator for Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, so the challenge is to get them motu proprio, reports Luis B. García.
But the initiative has theoretical and social support. Just last Tuesday, when Sánchez defended the need to achieve a Parliament with larger progressive majorities at the polls, the Senators for Democracy platform was presented at the Ateneo de Madrid, which launched its proposal for the unitary leftist candidates to reverse the absolute majority of the PP. According to its promoters, they are already having contacts with the PSOE, Movimiento Sumar, Izquierda Unida, Podemos, Más Madrid and Compromís.
The project found good reception in Moncloa and Ferraz, although they admit that it is still very incipient, without overlooking the difficulties it entails. Firstly, because these initial conversations are taking place while the space to the left of the PSOE has yet to resolve how and with what candidates it will run for the Congressional elections. At the same time, the PSOE is also preparing its own lists, which it plans to ratify in the federal committee on October 17.
The PSOE does not want to dilute its acronym on the electoral ballots for the Senate, even though the project would not require agreeing on common programs and each party would maintain its voting autonomy. It is difficult, but the ambition of the objective – to overthrow the absolute majority of the PP – encourages them to explore the possibilities. And time is short.
Ministers Torres, López and Morant focus on their own elections
The call for the early elections on 29-N has altered the plans of some socialist ministers who intended to take full advantage of the Government's platform until they compete as headliners in the next regional elections in May 2027. "My will and my priority is to win the elections in the Canary Islands again and, therefore, I am not going to appear on the lists for the Congress of Deputies," announced yesterday the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, who will lead, as leader of the Canarian socialists, the candidacy for the May regional elections in the archipelago. Torres thus follows in the footsteps of the Minister for Digital Transformation, Óscar López, who last Wednesday already revealed that he will not run in the general elections of 29-N on the list for Madrid – which Pedro Sánchez will once again lead –, to focus on his political battle against President Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the regional elections in May in the Community of Madrid. “I have made a personal and political decision which is to focus on Madrid, because I believe that change is possible in Madrid,” explained Óscar López, leader of the Madrid socialists, on TVE's Malas Lenguas. “All my energies are going to go towards achieving change in Madrid,” the minister justified. On Tuesday it was the Minister of Science and leader of the Valencian socialists, Diana Morant, who pointed to this same path. Asked if she will head the PSPV list for Valencia on 29-N, as she already did in the 2023 general elections, she limited herself to answering: "I am the candidate for president of the Generalitat Valenciana." Nor will María Jesús Montero, former first vice president of the Government and current leader of the PSOE of Andalusia, head the socialist list for Seville on 29-N this time. The same Tuesday, he ruled out his candidacy for the general elections.
