The PSOE and Frente Amplio seal their alliance to snatch the absolute majority of the Senate from the Popular Party on 29N

The PSOE and the parties of the Broad Front closed an agreement last night to present joint candidacies for the Senate in the general elections on November 29. The alliance, called Senate of Progress, seeks to concentrate left-wing support to challenge the PP for an absolute majority in the Upper House. The pact came just minutes before the deadline to register coalitions, after weeks of conversations and pressure from a citizen initiative that demanded a shared ballot.

The PSOE's Secretary of Organization, Rebeca Torró, presented the agreement as a response to that demand for unity. "We have listened to you, we have understood your message," she affirmed, before thanking the participating organizations for their effort. The socialists also released a video with the announcement and a message summarizing their electoral objective. "We are going for a Senate of Progress."

The Broad Front defended cooperation to build a progressive majority and recover the constitutional role of the institution. The platform Senators for Democracy, which had promoted the rapprochement, celebrated that the parties had heeded the request. "This agreement is born from civil society," it highlighted, thanking the work to make it possible.

The territorial scope of the pact

The alliance brings together the PSOE, United Left, Sumar Movement, Más Madrid, Compromís, Chunta Aragonesista, and Batzarre, with an expected reach of around forty provinces and an application that must be specified territorially. The conversations between Torró and the general secretary of the PCE and Sumar deputy, Enrique Santiago, were decisive in closing the understanding before midnight.

Added to the pact are the specific agreements in the Balearic Islands and La Gomera. In the Balearic Islands, cooperation includes socialists, Més, IU, and Sumar Movement. Catalonia is excluded from the state agreement, which the Comuns have also not joined, while in the Canary Islands, the understanding with the PSOE is limited to La Gomera. Podemos is also not part of the state alliance, although its bases had supported cooperation in the Senate with the progressive bloc in Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera.

The formula negotiated in the provincial constituencies involves combining two socialist candidates with a third from the allied forces, with adaptations according to the territory. In the Valencian Community, the distribution contemplates that this third position corresponds to Més-Compromís in Alicante, to Iniciativa del Poble Valencià in Valencia, and to Esquerra Unida in Castellón. The political agreement still leaves work ahead to specify the names and complete the candidacies.

The cooperation in the Senate was closed the same night that the state agreement between Frente Amplio and Podemos for Congress failed. The unitary candidacies of the Canary Islands and the Valencian Community remained as the main exceptions to that division. The understanding with the PSOE allows, at least in the Upper House, to coordinate organizations that will compete among themselves for votes for the Lower House.

A sum that can change the seats

The electoral incentive is especially strong due to the way senators are elected. In peninsular provinces, four seats are distributed, and each voter can mark up to three candidates, even from different parties. Usually, the most voted force obtains three representatives and the second one gets one. Concentrating the progressive vote can reverse this distribution and allow the left to go from one to three senators in a province. Each change of this type would mean two additional seats for its candidates and two less for its adversaries, although it will depend on the effective support received by the names on the list.

An internal PSOE report, advanced by 'elDiario.es', calculated up to 40 more senators with a unitary candidacy. The simulation, prepared with provincial estimates from early October, showed 150 progressive representatives by adding those elected at the polls and those already designated by the autonomous communities, above the absolute majority. That scenario also included Podemos and a broader territorial convergence. The result of the finally closed pact will depend on where it is applied, on participation, and on how many votes each candidacy manages to gather.

The dispute has consequences for the next legislature. The Senate can amend and veto laws, although the Congress has mechanisms to lift those vetoes. It also proposes four magistrates for the Constitutional Court, for which it needs a three-fifths majority, higher than the absolute majority. The PP would lose the ability to act alone in the Chamber if it ceases to control that majority. The final count will also be influenced by the senators designated by the regional parliaments, who are not renewed through these general elections.

The cooperation has a precedent in the PSOE and IU pact of 2000, when Joaquín Almunia and Francisco Frutos agreed to coordinate candidacies for the Senate. In the foreseen provinces, the socialists would present two candidates and IU one, maintaining independent candidacies and jointly requesting the vote for all three. The PP ended those elections with 127 directly elected senators. Now, the parties must complete the lists of the new agreement during the period for submitting candidacies, between October 21 and 26.