Emilio Delgado will lead the Broad Front's candidacy for Madrid in the general elections on November 29. Más Madrid, Comuns, Movimiento Sumar, and Izquierda Unida (IU) confirmed this Tuesday the agreement to place the current deputy spokesperson for Más Madrid in the regional Assembly as number one. The decision ratifies the scenario advanced by 'ElConstitucional.es' and comes with the negotiation to incorporate Podemos still open.
This newspaper published at 5:08 p.m. that sources close to the conversations placed an offer to Irene Montero to occupy the number two position, behind Delgado, with the aim of bringing positions closer. The confirmation of the head of the list specifies one part of that proposal, while the statement leaves the other positions unresolved. The proposal to the MEP and former Minister of Equality is still pending a political agreement and her acceptance.
The four organizations advocate for a "unitary, plural, and territorially rooted" candidacy, after having proposed Ada Colau as a candidate for the Presidency of the Government. In Delgado's announcement, they place the cost of living and housing among their priorities. "Politics must serve to improve the living conditions of the social majority," they maintain. Madrid will thus have its own head of list, while Colau maintains the leadership of the state project.
Delgado's profile
Delgado comes to this candidacy with more than a decade of parliamentary experience and a career linked to social education and the neighborhoods of the Madrid periphery. A resident of Móstoles, he worked for years with vulnerable people before entering the Assembly in 2015, on Podemos' lists. He later joined Más Madrid. His time in both formations provides experience in the spaces that are now negotiating the candidacy.
His visibility has grown with interventions against the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, television appearances, and the dissemination of his speeches on social media. The Broad Front is betting on a leader with the capacity to take his message outside the Assembly, in a campaign that aims to focus on the difficulties of paying for housing or making ends meet.
His political relationship with Gabriel Rufián adds a relevant precedent. Both shared an event on February 18 about the future of the left in the Galileo Galilei hall in Madrid, months before the current agreement between Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and Podemos. That conversation sought to regain support among working classes and address unity. That same night, Delgado stated on 'El Intermedio', on laSexta, that "the left has to learn to work in the medium term and not rush a year before the elections to save face".
Madrid has significant weight in that discussion. In the 2023 general elections, the Sumar coalition, which included Podemos, won six deputies and more than 550,000 votes in the constituency. This result serves as a reference for the space that organizations intend to mobilize, with a map of candidacies that can still change. If Frente Amplio and Podemos end up competing separately, they will have to dispute part of that electorate, with the risk that the division will make it difficult to transform votes into seats.
The number two and unity
The agreement represents a change from Más Madrid's initial approach, which had defended Mónica García to lead the candidacy. On Sunday, the party proposed Delgado as number one and the Minister of Health in second place. The offer to Montero would require reviewing that distribution of the top positions and reserving a relevant space for Podemos. This Tuesday's decision confirms Delgado's leadership, but leaves pending how representation will be distributed among the different forces and what place García will occupy.
Podemos maintains, for its part, its own political proposal. Its general secretary, Ione Belarra, defended this Tuesday the tandem of Irene Montero and Rufián as the "starting team" of its project and has invited other organizations to join. Montero has also proposed in an interview on Cadena SER that Frente Amplio join the framework of collaboration with ERC, in addition to insisting on open primaries. The formula for union and state leadership remains to be agreed upon.
The pact with ERC contemplates the incorporation of independents from the Podemos environment into the republican lists of Catalonia and shared campaign events between Rufián and Montero outside that territory. ERC has specified that it will keep its lists, its program, and its parliamentary group. Rufián will run for Barcelona, while Delgado will head the Madrid candidacy. This distribution allows for exploring shared events and agreements, although it still depends on the decisions of their organizations.
Ada Colau insisted this afternoon that "there is still time" and has asked "that we sit down and continue talking" to achieve a unitary candidacy. Parties have until Friday, October 16, to communicate their electoral coalitions; the deadline to submit the names of the candidacies ends on the 26th.
