The future candidacy of Frente Amplio plans to resolve the election of its head of list in "the coming days" and ministers Mónica García and Ernest Urtasun have reiterated that they will submit to what the party table collectively determines.
Both have stated this in an appearance before the media alongside the coordinators of IU and Movimiento Sumar, Antonio Maíllo and Verónica Martínez Barbero, after the meeting between ministers and political forces of the minority partner of the Executive, held after the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, confirmed the electoral advance.
The two leaders have insisted that in the coming dates the pending milestones will be closed to shape the candidacy, with special attention to the designation of the candidate for the Presidency and the rest of the electoral references.
Sources from this political space emphasize that the announcement of the candidate must occur quickly, once the deadlines for the electoral call are activated, and they take for granted that it will be specified throughout this week.
Other voices emphasize that the candidacy will have a very choral character and that, although a candidate for the Presidency of the Government will be defined, responsibilities will be distributed among the main figures, considering it logical to place the ministers in the pools, given that they embody the main political flags of Sumar.
In any case, García and Urtasun have not wanted to set a closed calendar and have limited themselves to emphasizing that Frente Amplio will be articulated in the coming days, including the name of the candidate, which will respond to a shared decision. In this sense, they have advanced that the event on October 17 will be the official launch of the candidacy and that by then a good part of the uncertainties will be cleared up.
The ministers, willing to give the "battle" where they are most "useful"
Asked if he aspires to head the list, the Minister of Culture resorted to irony and to "a classic of Spanish cinema" to respond that he is at "the disposal of what political organizations decide."
"Therefore, yes, I am going to be in the battle, in the place where my political organizations decide," he added when questioned about whether his option involves leading the list for Barcelona.
About whether the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, could also make himself available for what the parties agree upon despite having ruled it out on several occasions, Urtasun has pointed out that he cannot speak on his behalf and has emphasized that he is a political reference of the minority partner.
For her part, Mónica García has emphasized that she will assume the role in which she is "most useful" for the candidacy and to achieve "the desire to be able to renew a progressive Government to face the right, fascism, and rentism."
"I am one of the leaders of the Más Madrid party and I am also a proud Minister of Health, and we will make decisions together in the places that correspond. That is why I am not going to speak from my individuality, from my desire, from my need at all, but I am going to speak from the need, the desire of the political organizations," García has explained, whose name is gaining weight internally as a possible head of the list.
In a previous interview on Cadena Ser, she had already stated that she is willing to do whatever is necessary to stop the far-right and that she will submit to the decision that the parties make regarding electoral leadership.
Compromís and Chunta remain on the sidelines of the summit
In the meeting this Monday, parliamentary allies of the minority partner such as Compromís, Chunta, and Més per Mallorca were not present, as they prefer to open bilateral negotiations and first observe how this new space consolidates. These formations demand guarantees of confederality and aspire to lead the unity confluences of the left in their territories.
Sources from the current Sumar space indicate that they already had contacts with these organizations last week and that the dialogue is fluid.
Their goal is that they finally integrate into the candidacy of Frente Amplio, recalling that there are municipal agreements that already point to unitary lists, even in spaces where Podemos participates.
A candidacy against the "rentism tripartite"
Urtasun has defended that with this Frente Amplio they aspire to "go out to win the country" and to activate the machinery to make a victory of the left possible against the "rentism tripartite," in which he has included PP, Vox, and Junts for their rejection of the housing decrees that have precipitated the electoral advance. He has insisted that these elections are posed as a "plebiscite" on housing.
García has reiterated that housing will be the great banner of the candidacy and that it is known that they are the ones driving the most ambitious measures in this area within the Government.
After pointing out that they not only share but celebrate the electoral advance in front of a majority of Congress aligned with the "speculators," he has claimed that they represent the "brave" left and that they are going to put their "body" to channel the demands of the movements for the right to housing, guided by what he has called "true social patriotism."
He has added that this coalition is born from the utmost respect and from shared decisions, in a space where "no one is surplus" and in which they do not contemplate competing against each other.
IU trusts in "turning the polls around"
The leader of IU has emphasized that the candidacy of Frente Amplio responds to the responsibility of the left in the face of the current political moment and that their goal is to continue "embracing more organizations" to raise a project "useful to the needs of the people."
He has claimed that the presence of this space in the Government has been the truly differential factor of the legislature and has assured that they are going to "turn the polls (so far unfavorable) around by 29N." Maíllo has added that in the coming days they will continue to meet milestones, including announcing the head of the list and the main candidates by constituencies.
For her part, the spokesperson for Sumar in Congress has reiterated that Frente Amplio is the project that best captures the citizens' demands regarding housing and that, the more support it receives at the polls, the greater the social advances they will be able to promote.