The Popular Party of Melilla has released this Tuesday the list with which it will contest the general elections next November 29, repeating the same trio as in the previous appointment at the ballot boxes: Sofía Acedo as head of the list for the Congress of Deputies and Isabel Moreno and Fernando Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu as candidates for the Senate.
The event was held at the feet of the citadel of "Melilla La Vieja", where the three candidates underscored their party’s commitment to the city and set as their main goal "to place Melilla at the heart of the Spanish national political agenda", at a moment they consider especially delicate for the two autonomous cities "in matters of sovereignty, territorial integrity, security and the protection of their borders".
The Congress candidate, Sofía Acedo, has placed the defense of the territorial integrity and of the Spanishness of Ceuta and Melilla among the key issues that, in her view, will be settled on November 29. Along with this, she has included in the debate "Spanish sovereignty, freedom, the rights of citizens, security, the protection of borders and the quality of public services".
"We are betting on a prosperous, certain future and one full of opportunities," she said, asserting the equality of all Spaniards regardless of their origin or beliefs. "Being Spanish and European is that," she added, defending the national flag as a symbol of unity and a guarantee of citizens’ rights.
The deputy has warned that Ceuta and Melilla "are at stake in what is essential" in these elections and has focused much of her speech on criticizing the response of the Government of Pedro Sánchez to the migration crisis that Ceuta experienced on July 30 and 31, 2026, when, as she indicated, more than 80,000 people coming from Morocco entered the city.
Acedo has accused the Executive of "incompetence, irresponsibility and negligence" for remaining, in her view, "unmoved" in the face of a situation of "extreme gravity". She has argued that that episode continues to have effects in the neighboring city: "In that invasion, 141 people died. Three months later, Ceuta is still occupied. Its services are absolutely disrupted, more than three dozen sexual assaults have occurred, and there is insecurity, fear and abandonment".
The popular leader has reproached the central Government for disregarding the prior warnings and leaving the population without protection: "They abandoned Ceuta and left all Spanish people unprotected," she has ruled.
In this context, she has confessed that since July 30 she has been wondering what would have happened if a similar incident had occurred in Melilla: "Unfortunately, the question is that yes, they would have done exactly the same thing they have done with Ceuta: abandonment and lack of protection," she has assured.
A list to carry Melilla’s voice to Madrid
Acedo has expressed her gratitude to the PP regional president, Juan José Imbroda, and to the entire organization from Melilla for the confidence placed in all the members of the candidacy, both incumbents and substitutes, which, in her view, faithfully reflects the city’s pluralism.
She has recalled that the PP achieved the majority support of the voters of Melilla in the last general elections and has underscored the honor that representing the city in the Cortes Generales over the last three years has entailed.
With an eye to November 29, she has promised that, if the PP again obtains broad support, her representatives "will bare their skin" in defending the interests of Melilla. "Our commitment is to put Melilla at the heart of the Spanish national political agenda," she has insisted.
The candidate has defined the next call as "groundbreaking," especially for Ceuta and Melilla, and has presented the election as a choice between two models. On one side, she has placed what she considers "political, economic and moral corruption" and "institutional degeneration" of the current Government; on the other, the project of the PP’s national leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whom she has described as a proposal for "national reconstruction" based on seriousness, rigor, honesty and decency.
In her speech, she has also referred to the recent train accidents in Spain, assuring that the country continues to mourn the disaster in Urda and also recalling the accident in Adamuz, in which, as she indicated, 46 people died.
For Acedo, that "national reconstruction" that Feijóo proposes must also begin in Melilla, after eight years of socialist government, and she has reiterated that there is a "moral obligation" to remove Pedro Sánchez and his team from power.
Economic development and institutional strengthening
In the programmatic section, the candidate has stated that the PP wants to respond to the shortcomings which, in her view, have slowed the city’s growth in recent years.
Among her priorities, she has cited improving connectivity and transportation, quality healthcare, top-tier education, attracting productive investment, and more ambitious housing policies. In addition, she has defended the need to deepen and refine Melilla’s special economic and tax regime in order to provide greater stability and legal certainty for companies and investors.
She has also highlighted the importance of strengthening Melilla’s presence in the European Union and of bringing the community institutions closer to local reality. Protecting the borders and supporting the State Security Forces and Corps complete, as she explained, the core of commitments that the PP aims to place at the forefront of its political action.
"On November 29 we are playing for Melilla’s future. On November 29 we are playing for Spain’s future," Acedo stressed, who has guaranteed that her party "will work to restore trust and hope to the whole of the country."
With the candidacy presented this Tuesday, the PP maintains its bid for Sofía Acedo to Congress and for Isabel Moreno and Fernando Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu to the Senate, with the intention of revalidating the representation achieved in 2023 and of turning the defense of Melilla’s interests into one of the central pillars of the campaign.