The PSOE is weighing integrating into a joint candidacy with other leftist forces to run for the Senate in the upcoming general elections on November 29, with the aim of contesting the PP for control of the Upper House, where the 'popular' currently hold an absolute majority. To advance this possibility, a meeting with parties from the Frente Amplio is scheduled for this Sunday, where this formula will be thoroughly analyzed.
Among the minority partner in the Government and its parliamentary allies, there is interest in examining this route, in line with the call made by a civil society platform that demands a united left list in most constituencies. The decisive question, they emphasize, is to verify the PSOE's real willingness.
Sources familiar with the conversations admit that an agreement between the PSOE and the forces positioned to its left is complicated in itself, and that the scenario becomes even more tangled due to the internal situation of projects like Frente Amplio, which must decide on the candidate it proclaims for 29N and close a web of alliances for a broad electoral coalition under time pressure.
From Ferraz, for their part, they acknowledge that they are studying "all alternatives and scenarios" to try to win the general elections on November 29 both in Congress and in the Senate, following the electoral advance announced this Monday by President Pedro Sánchez.
In the socialist leadership, they also insist that the PP has made "spurious" use of the Senate in this legislature, promoting investigative commissions on cases of alleged corruption affecting the PSOE, including the so-called 'Koldo case'.
The 'popular' have taken advantage of their absolute majority in the Upper House to summon former minister José Luis Ábalos, his former advisor Koldo García, or the former number three of the party Santos Cerdán. They have also called the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, for October 30, 2025.
In this context, the PSOE keeps the option open to join a united left list for the Senate, although it still remains unresolved how this political space will be electorally articulated for the general elections, which has not yet designated a candidate nor closed its alliance scheme.
Unity promoted from civil society
The socialists have a very limited margin, barely until October 16, to make a definitive decision, according to the timelines set in the electoral calendar for registering coalitions.
The debate has accelerated following the presentation this week of the initiative "Senators for Democracy," driven by civil society, which advocates a joint leftist list for the Senate in the elections on November 29. Among its supporters are the writer Elvira Lindo, the singer Víctor Manuel, and the actor Pepe Viyuela, among other public figures.
In this scenario, a meeting has been called between the PSOE and several forces of the Frente Amplio, who had already had prior contacts with the promoters of the proposal and want to analyze in detail how to maximize the presence of the left in the Upper House.
Consulted sources emphasize that the minority partner was the one who took the first step and reached out several times to the PSOE, which until now had been cautious. Their objective in the meeting on Sunday is to check if there is real room for negotiation until October 16, the date on which the deadline for registering coalitions ends.
From IU, they point out to Europa Press that they share the idea of exploring different formulas for convergence, "as long as they are leftist, fair, and in the direction that the progressive majority is demanding, to prevent the alliance and communion of interests that the extreme right of the PP and the far-right of Vox have demonstrated during this last legislature from being repeated."
Additionally, they recall that when a similar proposal emerged from civil society a few weeks ago, IU already expressed that it was willing to know "the concrete form" of what it consisted of and "to dedicate all the necessary time to dialogue, always respecting the federal character of this formation." In Movimiento Sumar, they also lean towards dialogue to strengthen the representation of the left and demand honesty from this formation in the conversations that are opened.
Caution in Compromís and precedent in the Balearic Islands
In Compromís, sources from the coalition emphasize that for now there is no formal proposal and fear that it could be another "trial balloon" from the PSOE, recalling that in the elections of 2015 and 2026, the then regional leader Ximo Puig defended a joint list that was ultimately discarded by Ferraz.
Other voices from the Valencian formation point out, however, informal contacts in which this alternative is positively valued, although they find it difficult to close a pact with the PSOE without first clarifying how the alternative left will run for Congress, amid negotiations about unity in the Community of Valencia and at the state level.
To find a similar precedent, one must go back more than a quarter of a century, when the then leaders of the PSOE, Joaquín Almunia, and Izquierda Unida, Francisco Frutos, signed an agreement for joint lists to the Senate in 27 constituencies. Nevertheless, they did not manage to stop the absolute majority of the PP of José María Aznar in both Chambers.
In parallel, in the Balearic Islands, there was already an experiment in 2023 with a single left-wing candidacy for Ibiza, which obtained a seat, and now there is an aspiration not only to repeat it but to expand it, for example, to the case of Formentera, which in these elections will have its own senator for the first time.