The candidate of Frente Amplio for the general elections of 29N, Ada Colau, already has an agenda closed that includes traveling to around a dozen autonomous communities during the campaign, for which they have reserved a budget of 1.6 million.
This Monday, the campaign spokesperson and Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, has detailed the main lines of Frente Amplio’s electoral strategy and has expressed his confidence in achieving a notable result, despite what several polls indicate, by stating that they will manage to activate the alternative left with their two major campaign pillars: housing and the fight against inequality.
In line with this, the slogan chosen for the campaign will be "A vote like a home", just as had already been advanced in some 'spot' of Frente Amplio and as sources from the candidacy have confirmed.
Territorial tour and first events
During his appearance, Bustinduy specified that the Frente Amplio candidate for the Presidency of the Government is planning to visit Madrid, Aragon, Asturias, Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Castile and León, Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Basque Country during the campaign.
In any case, the calendar of events will be expanded, since the aim is to have a presence in almost all of the territory and, especially, in those constituencies where they believe they can obtain representation. From the candidacy they point, for example, to the intention of including the Balearic Islands and various additional provinces.
With the events already set, Frente Amplio and Colau will officially kick off the campaign in Madrid on Thursday, with the traditional poster-pasting, and the first major rally will be in Seville on Saturday 14. On Sunday, the activity will move to Zaragoza, where they will hold a joint event with their coalition partner, Chunta Aragonesista.
Bustinduy added that in the first week of the campaign they will also stop in the Basque Country, Castile and León and Asturias. In addition, they highlight Colau’s visit to Valencia on the 19th to back the Compromís-Frente Valenciano candidacy. On the 21st, the candidate’s central event will take place in Barcelona.
Afterwards, on the 22nd Colau will travel to the Canary Islands to support the Unidad del Pueblo Canario candidacy, which they share with forces such as Nueva Canarias and Podemos. On the 23rd she will go to A Coruña and the campaign’s closing will again be in Madrid on the 27th.
Campaign budget and materials
The total campaign budget of Frente Amplio stands at something more than 1.6 million, of which 1.1 million will be allocated to ordinary expenses and 530.125 euros to the dispatch of electoral propaganda (mailing).
In addition, the candidacy plans to distribute 111,110 paper posters, 989,000 leaflets, 97,400 stickers, and 43,500 brochures with the image of the list and its main proposals.
Meanwhile, Frente Amplio has set up a digital militancy WhatsApp group, following the lead of the strategy that proved key in the victory of Brazilian president Lula da Silva. This tool already adds more than 60,000 followers, to whom the leaders Eduardo Fernández Rubiño and Alicia Carrera assign specific tasks.
The minister and campaign spokesperson has assured that the candidacy is approaching 10% support intention at the start of the campaign, a threshold that, due to the characteristics of the electoral system, would allow them to double the number of seats. That percentage would open the door for them to compete for representatives in numerous provinces where seats are at stake with Vox and where, as he has emphasized, they aspire to be the “differential factor” of these elections.
Polls, alternative left, and dispute with the PSOE
Bustinduy has insisted on his confidence in Frente Amplio’s performance in this pre-campaign and has called into question the polls published in recent days, arguing that the surveys have “always” underestimated the alternative left. He has recalled that in 2023 the “unanimous” consensus pointed to a victory for the right and yet the ballot boxes made it possible to form a majority to invest a progressive government.
“Turnout has been extremely high,” Bustinduy stressed, to emphasize that in these elections the future of the public pensions system, the minimum wage, and public healthcare is at stake. For this reason, he has predicted that those who consider the outcome decided “are going to be in for a surprise on 29N.”
At the same time, he has mocked the fact that it is a “classic” for the PSOE to boast during the campaign of measures that his political space has promoted throughout the entire term. He has said that his job is to explain that the alternative left is noticeable when it governs, drawing on past newspaper archives and emphasizing that if the minimum wage has been increased and a labor reform has been approved, it is because Yolanda Díaz has held the Labour portfolio.
In fact, Bustinduy has advanced that during the campaign they will propose “well-sounding measures” that will set distances with the PSOE. He has also claimed the soundness that profiles like Colau or the head of the list for Madrid, Emilio Delgado, provide on housing issues and taxation on the great fortunes.
In relation to his proposal to create a tax on the ultra-wealthy, one of the hallmarks of Frente Amplio, the minister has pointed out that the “philharmonic of sad millionaires” has already appeared to protest against this levy.
Asked about the possibility of sharing events with Podemos and ERC, with whom they run together in a coalition in the Valencian Community, Bustinduy has said that they will try to be “in all places, in every corner and with everyone” during the campaign, because they identify themselves as the space for unity on the left and they aspire to reach the last corner of the country.
“We’re going to go all the way to the last corner of the country, with everyone, with whoever it takes. That has always been our attitude, from the very beginning,” he insisted.
Finally, Bustinduy has underlined that Frente Amplio “encourages people to support, participate, mobilize and demonstrate” so that “the country stops on the day of the general strike,” called for Wednesday 14. In this regard, he has defended that it is essential “to mobilize the working classes of this country against the plunder implied by the rent-seeking system, which is robbing and confiscating their wages.”