Sumar accelerates to weave the Frente Amplio after the announcement of general elections

Pedro Sánchez has put his cards face up: there will be general elections on November 29. Now it is the other parties that have to show theirs. In the case of Sumar there is a problem. He still doesn't know what his move is, although at least he has the opportunity to pick up a few more cards in the coming weeks to make a higher electoral bet. And that is what is being done immediately. The minority partner is accelerating to sign new political parties to swell and strengthen its new coalition called Frente Amplio, with the unknown of what will happen to Podemos, which for the moment would be presented only with Irene Montero as leader.

The left alliance is currently formed by IU, Movimiento Sumar, Más Madrid and Comunes and yesterday it announced that it will reveal the name of its candidate on October 17. That Saturday, the promoting parties will also explain their project.

There are several names in the pools to lead Frente Amplio but no certainty as to who it may finally be. Minister Mónica García and Ada Colau, former mayor of Barcelona, ​​are bidding upwards as the main options for the space. On that list there are figures like Pablo Bustinduy, who categorically discards himself, and Ernest Urtasun, who remains more because of his political weight than because of the consensus he arouses. Then there are leaders who appear in the rearguard as alternatives such as Toni Valero, from IU, and who knows if another one was covered after the rejection of Unai Sordo, leader of CCOO, and the fact that the scores for Alberto Garzón or judge Joaquim Bosch did not work either.

But we must move beyond finding the leader. Frente Amplio wants to be a unity candidate for the left and right now it does not even have the parties that Yolanda Díaz managed to include in Sumar for the 2023 elections.

In this sense, Frente Amplio sources indicate that they will announce the alliances "as they occur" until "culminating in a great event on October 17." To move forward, contacts will be increased with the parties that are part of the parliamentary group and that have not yet taken the step of joining. Such as Chunta Aragonesista, a sector of Compromís, Més per Mallorca or Equo.

All of these parties have yet to negotiate their landing in Frente Amplio. It can be a total integration, becoming part of the table of parties that will pilot the coalition, or it can be making a simply electoral agreement, by which the candidacy is shared but without involvement beyond the parliamentary group.

This second level of participation is what Compromís has always contemplated, which already refused to join Sumar in 2023 like other parties and which presented itself by signing an electoral coalition with them, maintaining absolute independence.