Colau gets a warning for excluding Aina Vidal from the November 29th lists

BarcelonaAda Colau already has someone to accompany her on her adventure in Madrid. The Comuns have validated the lists for the general elections, which hid a last-minute surprise: Aina Vidal, the current deputy spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, has been excluded. This Wednesday's national council was not exactly smooth sailing, with several voices dissenting from this decision, which also provoked a significant protest vote. The lists for the four Catalan constituencies were approved with 66% of votes in favor, but with 34% against and 20 blank votes. Vidal was the head of the Comuns list in the 2023 elections.

On the lists, which will be presented under the Comuns-Front Ampli umbrella, 2 of the 7 current Comuns deputies in the Spanish lower house are repeating: Viviane Ogou and Júlia Boada. Beyond the departure of Gerardo Pisarello, who will be the candidate for mayor of Barcelona in 2027, regarding Vidal, the party has limited itself to informing in a statement that she “will actively participate in the campaign” for the 29-N election.

In a tweet after the decision was made public, Vidal herself stated through X that she is beginning a “new stage.” “I will not continue in the Congress of Deputies. New colleagues will take on this responsibility and I am glad that the project continues to grow and that there are so many valuable women to take over,” she wrote on X, where she assures that she is leaving “proud” and confirms: “We will see each other while campaigning.” At the same time, she admits that the Front Ampli “is not perfect,” but assures that “we are the left that does not resign itself and that is hungry for victory.”

Sources consulted by ARA explain that, in the extraordinary national council, the sectors of the party closest to the CCOO union, to which Vidal belongs, expressed their dissatisfaction with the deputy's exclusion and therefore cast a protest vote against the candidacy. One of the options that had been worked on was for the deputy to head the candidacy for Tarragona, but the proposal did not take hold either, according to the same sources.

Colau, who will also be the presidential candidate of the Broad Front in the State, will form a tandem with the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, who will be followed by the doctor in political science and anti-corruption researcher Júlia Miralles (3); the lawyer and criminologist specializing in human rights Andrés García Berrio (4), now a deputy in the Parliament, and the former Barcelona city councilor Lucía Martín (5), very close to the former mayor of Barcelona. Number six will go to the former EUiA deputy in the Parliament and now councilor in Sabadell Joan Mena.

Regarding the rest of the constituencies, Ester Roca, a civil servant linked to popular culture, will head the list for Tarragona; the current deputy Júlia Boada, that of Girona, and Montse Cortassa, a Comuns councilor in Almacelles, will be the head of the list for Lleida.