United Left announced this Sunday in Sevilla its Andalusian lists for the Congress of Deputies ahead of the general elections next 29 November. In the Sevilla constituency, the candidacy will be headed by the general secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Enrique Santiago, as number one, followed by the current deputy in Congress Engracia Rivera, who will occupy second place.
According to the formation specified in a note, the presentation event took place in Virgen del Pilar square, in the neighborhood of La Barzola, and had the presence of the general coordinator of Izquierda Unida Andalucía, Toni Valero. The event marks the public start of the coalition's candidacies in the eight Andalusian provinces.
Enrique Santiago, lawyer and deputy in Congress since 2019, has been general secretary of the Communist Party of Spain since 2018. He currently serves as parliamentary spokesperson for United Left and has a "long political, institutional and commitment to human rights trajectory".
Between 2021 and 2022 he served as Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda and has developed an "intense activity" as a jurist in matters linked to the defense of fundamental rights and international justice. Among his responsibilities is his participation in the legal team of the peace negotiations of Colombia, which concluded with the signing of the 2016 agreements.
His political involvement began in the Communist Youth, an organization in which he came to be general secretary, and since then he has maintained a continued link with the strengthening of the PCE, Izquierda Unida and the spaces of confluence of the left.
For her part, Engracia Rivera has a degree in Law from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and is a career civil servant of the State Tax Administration Agency since 1991. She began her militancy in Esquerra Unida i Alternativa and the Communist Party of Catalonia, organizations in which she remained until 2001, the year in which she joined the Communist Party of Andalucía and United Left.
Her institutional work has been closely linked to the local sphere. She was a councilwoman in Barberà del Vallès and, later, in the Almensilla City Council, where she assumed responsibilities in Human Resources, Internal Regime, Treasury and Social Affairs, in addition to serving as municipal spokesperson for United Left.
Likewise, she was a provincial deputy in the Diputación de Sevilla between 2011 and 2019, accumulating extensive experience in local administration and in direct knowledge of the needs of the municipalities of Seville. Since 2023 she has been a deputy in the Congress for Seville, where she has assumed responsibilities in the Committee on Finance and Public Service.
The candidacy will thus contest the general elections of November 29 with a proposal focused on the defense of public services, labor rights, access to housing, equality, social justice and the strengthening of democratic rights.
With this act, the Frente Amplio opens a new electoral phase in Andalusia, with lists that combine "institutional experience, municipalist track record and presence of different organizations of the political and social left".