The Catalan candidates for 29-N see each other's faces in the first electoral debate

BarcelonaThere are four days left until the official start of the general election campaign for November 29th, and this Sunday, the Catalan candidates will face each other in the first electoral debate. It will be on RTVE and will feature all the number ones for Barcelona, except for the Broad Front, which will not send Ada Colau, but rather the number two, Ernest Urtasun. Present, therefore, will be: Jordi Hereu (PSC), Miriam Nogueras (Junts), Gabriel Rufián (ERC), Ernest Urtasun (Broad Front), Xavier García Albiol (PP), and Juan José Aizcorbe (Vox). In the first televised electoral battle, it will be possible to see who confronts whom and which candidate emerges most victorious.

Jordi Hereu is the best-positioned, according to polls, to win the November 29th elections. The former mayor of Barcelona and Minister of Industry would give the victory back to the socialists, but with a smaller lead than three years ago. Demoscopy predicts that ERC will be the party that comes closest to him and, therefore, could increase the seven deputies it achieved in 2023. In contrast, the Comuns, who are running this November 29th under the Broad Front brand, would suffer a decline. For this reason, this weekend Ada Colau called on the left-wing electorate to mobilize to "turn the polls around".

The division and infighting in the space to the left of the PSOE could take its toll on Colau's party, unlike Gabriel Rufián, who signed an alliance with Podemos. His profile continues to attract young and left-wing voters, and to try to close the gap with the socialists, ERC aspires to be able to counter the calls for a useful vote from the PSC. However, in the last pre-campaign events, Rufián has not spared the usual criticisms of Junts and its candidate, Miriam Nogueras. Precisely, the Junts leader in Madrid wants to position herself as the party that does not align with any bloc and has already begun to set conditions in case it becomes necessary to negotiate a government at the State level: the economic agreement would be the main requirement. On the side of the Spanish nationalist right, the PP and Vox have kept their rivalry open for a few years, even though both are aware that after November 29th they might have to reach an understanding just as they have done in the governments of several autonomous communities.