Frente Amplio kicks off the election campaign for 29N in Madrid with the mission of disputing seats with the far-right Vox: "The last word will be from the working social majority"

It was cold and windy on Cerro del Tío Pío, but the audience remained attentive to the stage when music filtered through the loudspeakers. Some children were playing with Bluetooth in the park and Ada Colau took the small sabotage with humor. "They're playing music to cheer us up," she said.

Frente Amplio has just opened its campaign for the general elections on November 29 in Vallecas, where 'ElConstitucional.es' was present, with a dedicated audience and a goal that the candidate quantified by setting her objective at 10% of the vote to snatch seats from the far-right Vox.

"This is a difficult campaign," acknowledged the former mayor of Barcelona. She spoke of the discontent over housing prices and of surveys that mostly predict a PP and Vox government, before asking her supporters to convert the mobilization seen in the streets on November 11 into votes. "On November 29, the last word will belong to the working social majority of this country," said Colau, who also claimed that she would lead the candidacy for the Presidency from Barcelona.

From 8% to 10% of the votes, the nine seats Delgado calculates

Emilio Delgado began with a family memory. His grandparents lived in Fontarrón, on Ramón Pérez de Ayala street, and he said that returning to that neighborhood to open the campaign makes him remember them. Afterwards, he asked attendees to talk to those who doubt or plan to stay home and gave them the calculation Frente Amplio is working with. With 8% of the votes, about 13 deputies. With 9%, 18. "With 10 we have 22," he said. If they reached 11%, he added, it would be 27.

The head of the list for Madrid argued that the increase in rent is also noticeable in what families stop spending in neighborhood shops. He spoke of the workshop, the florist, and the stationery store to explain where the money goes when rent increases. And he asked the coalition to respond to the fears that, in his opinion, the right takes advantage of. "We are going to organize hope as we did yesterday," he said in reference to the strike.

The coalition has identified a fortnight of constituencies where it aims to dispute a deputy with the PP and, above all, with Vox. In Andalusia, it points to Seville, Cadiz, Malaga, Cordoba, and Granada. It also looks at Zaragoza, Pontevedra, A Coruña, the Balearic Islands, Navarre, Bizkaia, Tarragona, and the two Canary Islands provinces. The distribution of the Congress is done province by province, and the legal barrier of 3% is applied in each one. With five deputies in Navarre, seven in Zaragoza, and twelve in Seville, the weight needed to enter changes a lot from one place to another. This is the logic of concentrating the campaign where a few thousand votes can move the last seat.

10% is the coalition's goal, and 22 seats are its calculation. The SW Demoscopia poll for La Séptima released last night places Frente Amplio at 7.4% and ten deputies. In that same projection, PP and Vox add up to 174 and would reach 176 if the two from the joint PP and UPN candidacy in Navarre are added. Taking a seat from Vox would give one more to the left and one less to the right. If the deputy changes hands between the PSOE and Frente Amplio, the combined weight of both remains. This is what would happen with the last seat in Madrid in the scenario drawn by that poll, which places the two candidacies in dispute for it.

From the 'Maricarmen decree' to Colau's warning to Pedro Sánchez

Tesh Sidi has brought to the stage this morning's vote. The Permanent Deputation has validated the housing decree by 35 votes to 34, which extends protection against certain evictions and allows requesting up to two years of extension in contracts that meet the requirements. Sidi attributed the progress to the unions and those who supported the strike. She also celebrated the judicial order to cease activity and close the headquarters of the neo-Nazi organization Núcleo Nacional. "Madrid will be the tomb of fascism," she chanted along with part of the audience.

"Of course strikes work!", Verónica Barbero has reported. The Movimiento Sumar candidate recalled her years as a labor inspector and the negotiations in which she saw works councils accept worse conditions to save jobs. She transferred that experience to rent with a question that summarized her intervention. "What's the point of getting an indefinite contract if you don't know how long you'll be able to stay in your home?" She demanded indefinite rents, more public housing, and a reduction in working hours without a salary cut. The second decree, which proposed the indefinite renewal of contracts, was rejected this morning.

Colau has demanded an investigation into the police charges during the 11N strike and has called for political accountability. She also directed part of her speech to Pedro Sánchez. She advocated for the increase in the minimum wage and labor reform, and reproached the president for his triumphalism regarding the economy's progress when so many families are still suffocated by rent. She asked him for "more humility with working people and more courage against landlords and speculators." Her condition for a future progressive government was summarized in one sentence. "It will be against speculation or it will not be."

Toni Valero advocates for the useful vote and the campaign heads to Seville and Zaragoza

Toni Valero, candidate for Izquierda Unida, said he was born in Madrid, the son of an Andalusian mother and a Mancha father who came to work in the capital. From that family history, he championed the welcoming nature of the city and argued that the usefulness of the vote also depends on what is done with the obtained deputy. "The useful vote is about what that seat is for," he said. He linked the weight he claims for the coalition to the defense of public services and to measures such as the recovery of public management in railways and energy.

After the start in Vallecas, the campaign heads to two of the provinces where Frente Amplio wants to contest the last seats. Colau will be this Saturday 14 in Seville, where Enrique Santiago leads the list for Congress, and on Sunday 15 she will travel to Zaragoza for an event with Chunta Aragonesista.