Colau withdraws three candidacies from the Senate to concentrate the vote on the PSC

BarcelonaAgreement between PSC and Comuns for the Senate candidacies. The two groups have reached a pact to form a united front in the upcoming elections for the Spanish upper house, and Ada Colau's party commits to withdrawing its candidacies in Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona in exchange for the Catalan socialists appointing an autonomous senator proposed by the Comuns. The PSC spokesperson, Lluïsa Moret, justified the agreement in a press conference because "the far-right must be confronted".

The pact between the socialists and Colau's party comes the day after the Spanish nationalist right reached a similar agreement throughout the State. Regarding the Principality, the PP will renounce running in Girona and Lleida—where it has not won representation for decades—for the benefit of Vox. "We will see the leader of the PP in Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, cast a ballot for Vox," highlighted the PSC spokesperson, who assured that the PP and Vox "are the same thing".

In a joint statement, the PSC and Comuns defend the "democratic responsibility of progressive and pro-Catalan forces to block the path of the right and the extreme right" in the Senate. In this sense, they state that they want to prevent the Spanish upper house from continuing to "block the initiatives" of the Spanish government and becoming an "instrument of democratic regression and control of State institutions".

The PSC spokesperson also championed the common front with Colau's group to fight against a PP and Vox that "want to end Catalan institutions and directly attack self-government". "We must defend the rights and freedoms of the Catalans, our diversity and plurality, and our language. This is the progressive pact," noted Moret.

It should be remembered that in the previous Senate elections, the Catalan socialists obtained maximum representation in these three provinces: nine seats. In contrast, the Comuns did not secure any representatives, while Esquerra won two in Lleida and Tarragona, and Junts one in Girona.

At this moment, however, sources from the Comuns explain that they still do not have any name on the table to propose to the PSC as an autonomous senator and assure that it is a debate they will address after the elections. In the same vein, Moret said they are in no rush to decide on the profile and also noted that they will not make a decision until after the elections on November 29th.