For days, the Broad Front and Podemos have been blaming each other for the failure of left-wing unity ahead of November 29th. The candidacy led by Ada Colau boasts of having brought together fifteen different parties under its banner, although the four main parties have been the ones leading the way: Comuns, Sumar, Más Madrid, and United Left (IU). Now there will be fourteen, as confirmed by ARA, because one of the two sects that had joined has pulled out of the Broad Front. The Humanist Party, founded in 1984 under the umbrella of the IU—and which left two years later amidst accusations of sectarianism—, has finally rejected the offer after consulting its membership.

Ada 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.

The song Los niños del barrio was playing when the leaders of the Broad Front appeared this Saturday in Madrid before more than a thousand militants who were waiting to learn about the project that brings together the left in the State for the November 29 elections. But not everyone was there. Los niños from Podem were missing, with whom the possibility of running together in Madrid, Barcelona, and other territories vanished this Friday night after an "agonizing" negotiation, acknowledge some voices from this space, who arrived at the event having barely slept. Gabriel Rufián was also not there, who had risen as the unifying face of all the forces to the left of the PSOE to curb the threat of a PP-Vox government. Nor was Yolanda Díaz, who three years ago was the candidate for this space – then under the name Sumar – for the presidency of the Spanish government. This Saturday she had a parallel event at a university. Today, Ada Colau returns to the political front line, candidate of the Broad Front for the presidency of the Spanish government and number one for Barcelona – Ernest Urtasun will run as number two on the ticket in the Catalan capital –, and Emilio Delgado will be the number one for Madrid.

The facts are as follows: the Broad Front, which wanted to recreate the 2023 Sumar formula, has not been possible on a general scale, so both Irene Montero and Ada Colau will formally be candidates for the presidency of the Spanish government. Neither of them, however, is the preferred candidate for the bulk of Spanish left-wing voters, who prefer (oh, surprise) the republican Gabriel Rufián. And now let's recap.

With time already exhausted, the divorce of the state left-wing parties has been consummated. The negotiations between Broad Front and Podemos to run together in the November 29th elections have failed—there will only be unitary lists in the Canary Islands and the Valencian Community. "The Broad Front has done everything possible to build the broadest and most diverse political alliance possible," they noted past midnight from the party that, among others, is led by Ada Colau. Midnight was the deadline to register coalitions for the state elections on November 29th. Now, it will still be necessary to define the lists of candidates that must be presented before October 26th.

Gabriel Rufián considers the possibility of a unitary agreement to the left of the PSOE as practically buried, both in Catalonia and in the State, and admits that he has even thought about quitting. This is how he explained it in an interview on RAC1, with only a few hours left before the deadline to present coalitions for November 29th ends at midnight. The leader of the republicans in Madrid, very critical of his party's leadership, revealed that this Thursday he was about to step aside, but ended up discarding it because they "stopped" him, and also out of responsibility. Even so, he has acknowledged that he has not succeeded with his plans in favor of a unitary candidacy: "I have failed, we have failed. There are hours left, but it is very likely that it will not happen," he said.

The political forces “to the left of the PSOE” had until this Friday to unify efforts and present some kind of joint proposal that could inspire, or at least mobilize, their electorate. We are referring to the parties of the so-called Broad Front (Sumar, Comuns, Més Madrid, IU) and the two parties of the Rufianista-Monterista Front, or ERC-Podem. This, however, has not happened. The fronts that have prevailed, for the umpteenth time, are the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front, so inspirationally described in Life of Brian by Monty Python, and their customary, irritating, stupid inability to reach any kind of agreement among themselves. Unless there is, in stoppage time, one of those tiresome plot twists, one of those childish attention-grabbing stunts that the politicians of our time have subscribed to, the “unity of the left” will not happen again, precisely because of those who have spent months and years lecturing and gesturing about the need for the unity of the left. The fact that the calling of elections surprised all these forces with their homework undone and completely disorganized was already shameful enough; that in the following weeks they have not only been unable to correct this situation but have ended up ruining it, is a calamity. In any way they could, the voters were asking for only one thing: a single ballot, a single list to vote for. For this, one did not even need “unity of the left”, just a certain willingness to reach an understanding. A little bit of skill, intelligence, flexibility, a steady hand (left, yes) and, above all, an important dose of humility, self-criticism and a will to serve the citizenry. There has been nothing of all that. Neither “a single ballot” nor anything else. Nothing at all.

Friday is the deadline to present coalitions for the upcoming general elections and, at this moment, negotiations between the parties to the left of the PSOE remain open. In 2023, the agreement to form Sumar arrived at the last minute (with Podemos inside, despite the veto on Irene Montero) and, this year, it is on its way to being resolved for better or worse at the last minute as well. In fact, the stumbling block remains how to unite the parties that make up the Broad Front – Moviment Sumar, United Left, Más Madrid, and the Comuns – with Podemos, which right now would run alone. The purple party, however, has sought an alliance with Gabriel Rufián and ERC, wanting it to be a catalyst and a way to put pressure on the Broad Front in the negotiation. Are there possibilities for a joint candidacy? What would happen with ERC if Podemos integrates into the Broad Front?

After announcing that Gabriel Rufián will be their candidate in the next general election, ERC held a press conference this Tuesday to rule out any collaboration with state-wide left-wing parties that goes beyond incorporating members of Podemos into their lists. In fact, the party spokesperson, Isaac Albert, avoided answering the Comuns' criticism regarding the alliance with the purple party and once again shut the door on being part of the state-wide Broad Front coalition currently being negotiated by Sumar, Comuns, Esquerra Unida, and Més Madrid. However, the republican leader's words were contradicted by Rufián himself in a post on X: "ERC and Comuns must talk, listen to each other, and understand each other to unblock the situation. Beyond vetoes and hatreds that matter to no one. And I am on that. And I will do it until the end." "What cannot be is that the way to respond to the extreme right is to dilute the ERC acronym. ERC will run in Catalonia as ERC," replied Albert at the press conference.

The day after Gabriel Rufián's agreement with ERC to become the party's candidate for the Spanish elections, with an understanding with Podemos included, there have been movements on the Spanish left. Specifically, the four parties of the Broad Front –Sumar, United Left, Más Madrid, and Comuns– have issued a joint statement in which they propose the former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, as a candidate for the presidency of the Spanish government.

Ada Colau is not giving up on her crusade to unite the left at the national level. The former mayor of Barcelona has once again urged Gabriel Rufián, who has a good relationship with Podemos, to join the Broad Front left-wing coalition and to use "his leadership" to help her include the various formations to the left of the PSOE. In an interview on La Sexta, Colau considers that the republican spokesperson is a key actor to "meet the citizenry's demand": a single proposal for the upcoming Spanish elections on November 29th.

The path for Ada Colau to be the presidential candidate for the Broad Front is becoming increasingly paved. The day after Més Madrid—a key player in this left-wing coalition—proposed her as a candidate for the upcoming Spanish elections on November 29th, the former mayor confirmed that she is willing to head the list. However, the founder of the PAH continues to put pressure on Irene Montero, the leader of Podemos, to join the Broad Front, to the point that she has set it as a condition to take the decisive step at the head of the coalition formed by Sumar, Més Madrid, Esquerra, and Comuns. "I have been asked, and I have said that if we are all there, I will be there too. But we must all be there," Colau said in an interview with TVE.

With the consummation of the calling of the general elections on November 29th, the parties of the old Sumar –recently rebranded and reconfigured as Broad Front– must choose the candidate against the clock. Comuns, United Left, Más Madrid, and Sumar Movement have been working for months to weave the new coalition that must be presented in the elections, but they still lack a key piece: the head of the list. The rumors have been firing up for days, and now knowledgeable sources assure behind the scenes that the white smoke will “undoubtedly” be this week.