Irene Montero brought the defense of the general strike on November 11 to Galicia this Tuesday and responded to Alberto Núñez Feijóo after the PP leader asked unions to reconsider the call due to the train accident in Urda. "Thanks to strikes, we have rights. Mr. Feijóo does too," affirmed the Podemos candidate for the general elections on November 29.
The purple leader took advantage of her visit to meet with workers and union representatives from Inditex in A Coruña and with shellfish gatherers and women from the sea sector in Vilagarcía de Arousa, Pontevedra. There, she defended the need to strengthen labor rights and redistribute wealth, while also asserting Podemos's role in institutions.
Montero also criticized the police eviction of the housing encampment in Puerta del Sol in Madrid, reiterated her demand for the resignation of the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, and called for the renationalization of the railway system. Her messages come less than four weeks before elections in which Podemos is running separately from Frente Amplio in much of the country.
Montero responds to Feijóo and criticizes the eviction of Sol
The president of the PP asked unions this Tuesday to reconsider the general strike on November 11. Feijóo assured that he respects the constitutional right to strike, but considers it a "serious mistake" to maintain it after the railway tragedy that has left at least 69 dead in Urda.
The call, promoted by trade unions and housing-related movements, demands improvements in wages and measures against the cost of living and difficulties in accessing a home. Comisiones Obreras, UGT, and other unions maintain the call for November 11.
Montero defended from A Coruña that the strike is "a fundamental right" and appealed for "massive" participation. The candidate framed the protest as a defense of "decent wages" and that "homes are for living."
Feijóo no quiere ni huelga el 11 ni derechos sociales. Quieren que la gente agache la cabeza y se someta a los de siempre. No engañan a nadie. pic.twitter.com/CHeMM81XHu
— Irene Montero (@IreneMontero) November 3, 2026
"Only by fighting can one eventually win and live lives that are dignified for all people," she maintained. In her opinion, that is also Podemos' battle "in elections and beyond elections."
The MEP has linked these demands with those of the Inditex workers with whom she met and has questioned that large companies register record profits without, in her opinion, that wealth sufficiently reaching their workforces. "If a company is doing well, that should mean that the country is doing well and that the workers who create those profits, who create that wealth with their work, are also doing well," she defended.
The day was also marked by the eviction of the Puerta del Sol encampment, set up since the end of September to demand the right to housing. The operation took place at dawn and, according to the Government Delegation in Madrid, affected 334 people and resulted in two arrests for disobedience and resistance.
Montero has denounced what she considers an intervention with "gratuitous violence" and has questioned why the same action is not taken against the ultra agitator Vito Quiles or the far-right group Núcleo Nacional. She has also asked the Government why, in her opinion, a "disproportionate" action was used against the protest.
The Government Delegation defends the eviction as a "last resort" and maintains that it was adopted after a gradual action and after the concentration lost its initial protest character. Part of the commissions that organized the encampment had already announced days before their departure from the square to focus their activity on the 11N mobilization.
Urda and Podemos' electoral challenge in Galicia
The Podemos candidate has again called for the resignation of Óscar Puente after the Urda train accident, which occurred last Wednesday. In addition, she has demanded that the minister announce the renationalization of the railway system in his appearance this Tuesday before the Permanent Deputation of the Congress.
"Anything" that does not go through that decision will be, in her opinion, "a patch". Montero has proposed resorting to article 128 of the Constitution and has pointed to the liberalization of the sector as the problem that, in her opinion, must be addressed. The purple leader has stated that "when one begins to do business with a public service and with a right, people's lives are put at risk". The judicial investigation and the technical investigation of the accident remain open and must determine the causes of the collision.
In Spain, Adif is the public company that manages the railway infrastructure and Renfe is a public operator, although in liberalized services it competes with private companies. The debate raised by Podemos therefore affects the model of provision of these services and the participation of private operators.
Montero's visit to Galicia also has an electoral reading. The candidate has defended that the territory needs representation from Podemos in Congress and has claimed "a strong state-level left" to promote social and economic changes.
"To make these deep transformations it is not enough with sovereignist or nationalist forces," she stated in Vilagarcía de Arousa. The MEP has, at the same time, called for strengthening the entire left. Her message comes despite the fact that Podemos will run together with Esquerra Republicana in Catalonia, while in Galicia it competes for votes with other candidacies, including the BNG and Frente Amplio.
The challenge for the purple party is to achieve its own representation in a territory where the division of the space to the left of the PSOE can influence the provincial distribution of seats. In the 2023 general elections, Sumar and Podemos ran together and obtained two deputies in Galicia.
A projection by ElectoralLab updated to November 2 places Podemos at 2.82% of the aggregated Galician vote and without seats, while it attributes 5.96% to Frente Amplio and also does not assign it representation in its central estimate. This is a simulation based on surveys, with uncertainty, and the final distribution will depend on the results in each province.
Asked about her possibilities in Galicia, Montero has defended that wherever there is a representative of Podemos there is someone willing to keep "hope intact" that things can change. Isabel Faraldo, the party's candidate for Congress for A Coruña, participated in the visit alongside her.
