Urtasun admits possible withdrawals from the Broad Front in provinces before the PSOE's proposal for 29N while United Left stands firm: "There are no useless votes"

Ernest Urtasun has left room this Thursday for exceptions in the candidacies of the Broad Front for Congress, while United Left maintains its rejection of withdrawing lists to concentrate the progressive vote. The Minister of Culture and number two of Comuns-Broad Front for Barcelona has defended the intention to compete in all provinces, although, when asked about Teruel, he referred to the parties involved for the explanation of any "specific casuistry". His words come with the clash between CHA and IU still open and in full controversy over the PSOE's proposal for the coalition to renounce competing in certain territories.

"We are going to fight for a progressive majority in the Senate and that is why we have reached this agreement. And in Congress, the Broad Front goes out to fight for each and every vote," he affirmed after meeting in Barcelona with representatives of the Taula del Tercer Sector, together with the coordinator of Movimiento Sumar, Rosa Martínez. Urtasun has ruled out generally transferring the Senate pact to Congress, but has avoided closing the possibility of particular cases. The coalition, he insisted, goes out "to try to get the best result in all provinces."

The socialist proposal described by sources from the space consulted by 'ElConstitucional.es' contemplates renouncing its own candidacies and incorporating independents into the PSOE lists in Galicia, Euskadi and nine other provinces. These last ones are Cáceres, Badajoz, Huelva, Jaén, León, Salamanca, Albacete, Ciudad Real and La Rioja. The approach finds internal discrepancies and the opposition of IU, without a closed agreement. The possibility of studying territorial exceptions keeps that discussion open, although the leaderships deny that they are negotiating a pact for Congress.

The denials and the frontal rejection of IU

Ferraz has again denied this Thursday that such negotiations exist. The Secretary of Organization and spokesperson for the PSOE, Rebeca Torró, has attributed the controversy to "misunderstandings" derived from the statements of Emilio Delgado, head of the Broad Front list for Madrid. In an interview on Cadena SER, she maintained that the conversations have been limited to the Senate. Urtasun has defended this alliance to prevent the Upper House from continuing to be a "place of institutional boycott" and to prevent the right from reaching a three-fifths majority.

The debate became public on Tuesday night, when Delgado spoke on TVE's 'La noche en 24 horas' about "open conversations trying to maximize and optimize electoral results". Frente Amplio later clarified that the contacts affected the Senate. The federal coordinator of IU, Antonio Maíllo, also rejected extending them to the lower house. "That debate has not been opened in Congress nor do I think it is contemplated," he stated on Wednesday. The organization thus maintains a more forceful position than Urtasun's reference to possible provincial particularities.

The discrepancy already has a concrete consequence in Teruel. The president of Chunta Aragonesista, Jorge Pueyo, announced on Wednesday that CHA-Frente Amplio Aragón would not present a list for Congress in that province to "avoid the dispersion of votes". IU called the decision "nonsense" and demanded to maintain a candidacy. This Thursday, Pueyo defended in an interview with 'El HuffPost' that the coalition agreement attributes to CHA the decision on the constituencies in which they run. The Teruel announcement proposes a withdrawal of the ballot, without an agreement to integrate candidates into the socialist list having been confirmed.

The coordinator of IU Aragón, Marta Abengochea, has recognized today in 'La Rebotica', on Radio Zaragoza, that her organization had already opposed that clause during the negotiation. "We never agreed to that clause being introduced," she said, while maintaining her intention to get a Frente Amplio ballot in Teruel. IU Aragón has reinforced that position on social media with a message published this morning. "There are no useless votes and Teruel is not a second-class province," she maintains. The organization continues to work for a list within the alliance, without having announced a registered independent candidacy.

The seats that explain the pulse

Teruel shows both the interest in concentrating support and the limits of that calculation. In 2023, the PP won two of its three deputies with 26,586 votes and the PSOE obtained one with 22,226. Sumar gathered 4,126 votes and was left without representation. If all those votes had been added to the socialists, keeping the rest of the candidacies equal, the PSOE would have reached 26,352, still 234 below the PP, and the distribution would have remained two popular seats and one socialist.

In addition, the 2023 Sumar candidacy included Podemos, which now runs separately from the Frente Amplio in much of the territory. The withdrawal of a list also does not guarantee that all its voters will choose the PSOE. That is one of the political arguments that run through the discussion about the autonomy of the space. Gabriel Rufián, ERC candidate and Podemos ally in this campaign, warned on Wednesday that there are left-wing voters who do not want to vote for the socialists and demanded that they have an alternative. His intervention responded to Delgado's words, before the announcement about Teruel.

The provincial distribution forces each constituency to be examined separately. With few deputies at stake, a candidacy can gather thousands of votes and be left out, while a variation in support changes the last seat between the parties that do obtain representation. For CHA, that difficulty justifies concentrating efforts where it believes it can get deputies. IU defends maintaining its own voice also in territories with worse prospects. The disagreement therefore affects the territorial presence and the political project of the coalition, as well as the joint result of the progressive bloc.

The configuration of the lists adds other internal discrepancies, with a different origin, in the Comuns. Urtasun responded this Thursday to the 34% of votes against his candidacy in the internal approval and to the departure of Aina Vidal, who will not repeat in Congress, as well as Candela López, Eloi Badia and Gerardo Pisarello. He acknowledged that preparing lists "is always a complex process in all political parties" and defended the resulting candidacy. Parties have until Monday, October 26, to present their lists; before that, CHA will hold an extraordinary National Committee this Friday to elect its representatives.