Ada Colau has become the center of conversations to choose who will lead the Broad Front in the general elections on November 29. The former mayor of Barcelona has the majority support of the Comuns leadership and, according to sources familiar with the negotiation consulted by 'ElConstitucional.es', she can facilitate an agreement with Podemos. There is good disposition between both parties, although a decisive issue still remains to be resolved: who will occupy the first positions on the candidacies.
The Podemos MEP Irene Montero has taken the initiative in the contacts, with calls to leaders of other organizations. Colau is participating in this rapprochement as a link between spaces that have been distanced for some time. The parties are scheduled to meet again this Tuesday and the consulted sources place the announcement of the leadership between Thursday and Saturday. They are confident that the name will be decided on Friday, but insist that the agreement can still change.
Colau acknowledged this Tuesday that she has been offered to lead the Broad Front. She explained that she had not planned to return to the political front line and has shown herself willing to help build a joint candidacy. For her, this unity must include Podemos. The Comuns leadership also favorably views her taking on the leadership, without having yet closed their candidacy or the lists.
Colau brings Podemos closer, but Más Madrid stalls the lists
One of the formulas being studied would place Colau as the main reference of the Broad Front and would give Montero a prominent place in the candidacy for Madrid, at least number two, according to sources consulted by this newspaper. It has also been suggested that the former mayor run in Catalonia. These are options on the table, subject to the final pact. In Comuns, it is also contemplated that the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, head the list for Barcelona if Colau assumes the state leadership.
This is where Más Madrid's resistance appears. Its leadership demands to lead and draw up the list for the Madrid constituency and defends that its leaders occupy the main positions. The Minister of Health, Mónica García, aspires to make the leap to Congress and to head that ballot. The sources consulted by 'ElConstitucional.es' now see it less likely that she will represent the entire Broad Front in the electoral debates, although García has publicly made herself available for whatever the parties agree on.
Más Madrid's claim clashes with Podemos' plans for Montero. Resolving the general leadership would, therefore, leave a difficult negotiation in the constituency with the highest number of seats in the country. Colau's proposal may bring the parties closer together; her fit in Barcelona and Montero's in Madrid are still pending a shared decision.
Open primaries and the calendar put pressure on the parties
Podemos plans to hold open primaries on October 14 and 15 to choose the candidacy of the left-wing situated to the left of the PSOE. Movimiento Sumar prefers that organizations reach an agreement among themselves. Its leader Verónica Martínez Barbero summarized it this Tuesday with a phrase: “It is better to agree than to compete”. Colau has left open the possibility of primaries, although she has warned of the difficulty of organizing them with so little time.
The early election has shortened a negotiation that the Broad Front planned to present publicly on October 17. Parties that want to run in a coalition must communicate it by October 16 at the latest. This forces them to finalize the partners and the basic rules of the agreement beforehand, even if the project presentation takes place later.
Housing also weighs on the election. Sources consulted by this media indicate that some sectors of the Broad Front had reservations about Colau's activist profile, but now they value her trajectory differently after the mobilizations of recent weeks. The Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, continues to rule out leading the candidacy. Among the names still in discussion, Colau today concentrates the greatest expectations of understanding with Podemos. It remains to be seen whether the parties manage to bring that understanding to the lists and to the method for choosing their candidate.
