Frente Amplio will announce this Sunday the people who will head its Andalusian candidacies for the Congress of Deputies and the Senate ahead of the general elections of November 29. The event is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. at Plaza Virgen del Pilar, in the Barzola district of Seville, and will feature the intervention of the general coordinator of Izquierda Unida Andalucía and IU candidate in Frente Amplio, Toni Valero.
The alliance, which brings together more than a dozen political forces, among them Izquierda Unida (IU), Movimiento Sumar and Iniciativa del Pueblo Andaluz, has renewed seven of its top candidates for these elections, in which it will not run together with Podemos.
In comparison with the July 2023 elections, only the third vice president of the Board of the Congress, Esther Gil, repeats, who once again is placed as number one for the province of Cádiz. The graduate in Political Science and Sociology is the only top candidate proposed by Movimiento Sumar in Andalucía for the Congress.
The general secretary of the PCE and former Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda, Enrique Santiago, is running in the elections again, although this time he will do so as number one for Seville. In this way, he replaces the professor of Communication Theory at the University of Seville (US), Francisco Sierra, who promoted a signature-gathering campaign on change.org to defend his continuity at the head of the candidacy.
In Córdoba, the provincial coordinator of IU, Sebastián Pérez, will head the list in place of Santiago. From the coalition they underline his "broad work in culture of peace" as a political scientist, lecturer and former director of the Eurolatin American Youth Center of INJUVE.
In the Málaga constituency, the absence as number one of the general coordinator of IU Andalucía, Toni Valero, is confirmed, as he moves to occupy the third place on the coalition's list for Madrid. The decision responds to his designation as the federal formation's candidate for the Presidency of the Government. His replacement as head of the Málaga list is Rafael Borrego, a Human Rights activist who participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla bound for Gaza.
In Jaén, the historical heritage specialist Antonio Ortega (IU) will be the new number one, instead of Sheila Carmona, equal treatment and gender technician at the Fundación Secretariado Gitano and human rights activist for racialized people.
In Huelva, the Secondary Education teacher and IU activist, Rebeca Martín Sánchez, will assume the leadership of the list in replacement of the current Andalusian parliamentarian, Rafael Sánchez Rufo.
There are also changes in Granada, where the councilor in Huétor Vega and former deputy in the Parliament of Andalucía, Jesús Fernández (IU), takes over the head of the candidacy, taking the baton from the then general secretary of Podemos Andalucía, Martina Velarde.
The roster of lead candidates of Frente Amplio for the Andalusian provinces is completed in Almería with the councilor of Roquetas de Mar and activist of the Sindicato de Inquilinas, Zacarías Lekal (IU), who will be number one in place of the former co-spokesperson of Verdes Equo Andalucía, Manuel Pérez Sola.
Candidacies to the Senate within the platform Senate of Progress
In parallel, Frente Amplio has confirmed who will occupy the number two positions for the Senate within the unitary platform "Senado de Progreso", arising from the state agreement with the PSOE. By virtue of this pact, the coalition will not present full candidates on the list for Seville and will only incorporate Francisco Israel Fernández Varela as substitute for the third senator on the candidacy.
The provincial coordinator of IU Almería and councilor in Huércal de Almería, María Jesús Amate, will be the coalition's proposal on the Almería list, headed by the former Government subdelegate in the province, José María Martín Fernández.
In the candidacy for the Senate for Cádiz, the number two spot will go to Violeta Márquez, councilor in the City Council of Jerez, provincial Communications officer of Izquierda Unida Cádiz and member of the Coordinadora de IU Andalucía.
Movimiento Sumar has designated the secretary of organization of the formation, Óscar Urralburu, as number two for Córdoba for the Upper House. In addition, the party has chosen its secretary of feminisms in Andalucía, Rosario Luque, to join the Senate list for Málaga.
For her part, the social worker and councilor from Huelva Mónica Rossi (IU) will be number two to the Senate for Huelva, while the councilor of Linares and local coordinator of IU, Laura Cerezuela, will occupy that same position in Jaén. In Granada, the former mayor of Chaucina, Mari Carmen Pérez (IU), will accompany the two representatives of PSOE-A in the unitary candidacy.