Four people on the Palencia PSOE’s proposed Congress slate have withdrawn after the national leadership replaced Álvaro Bilbao with María Luz Martínez Seijo. The decision emerged during Pedro Sánchez’s rally in Valladolid.
Álvaro Bilbao had received 77 votes and one abstention in the Palencia PSOE membership’s selection, according to the party representatives who have now withdrawn. All local party branches backed him as the proposed lead candidate. The province elects three members of Congress. The party’s national List Commission replaced Bilbao with María Luz Martínez Seijo, a sitting deputy who has been in Congress since 2016. The change came ahead of the general election scheduled for 29 November 2026.
Luis Ángel Marín Paredes and Alicia García Alonso said on Monday that their decision to leave the second and third positions was irrevocable. The two proposed substitutes, Luis Ángel Marín and Mireia Barrios, also withdrew. The PSOE Palencia list included reserve candidates Luis Fernando Cantero Mena and Mireia Barrios Bernardos. Their announcement came during a rally by Pedro Sánchez in Valladolid, where Martínez Seijo was present. RUSSPAIN has separately reported on a rally involving Vito Quiles in Pamplona.
The four said the national leadership’s decision “choca frontalmente con la voluntad mayoritaria de militancia palentina, que optó prácticamente de forma unánime por Álvaro Bilbao como cabeza de lista”. They said Bilbao had the backing of all local branches. EFE reported that the Federal List Commission altered the provincial proposal and put Martínez Seijo at the top of the slate. It was the fifth consecutive time Ferraz had changed the Palencia list, according to reporting on the decision.
Bilbao, now a councillor, said he learned of the change through the media. He said he respected the decision but did not agree with it, adding that he was concerned for his party. He said he had joined the PSOE at 16 because he believed members should support it in difficult moments.
The dispute is part of a wider series of changes to candidate lists. In Burgos, the national leadership removed Luis Tudanca from the PSOE Senate slate despite his broad support among local party branches and his leading the provincial membership selection. Aitana Hernando, mayor of Miranda de Ebro, took the first position; she had ranked third among the membership’s preferred candidates. The federal commission placed former regional deputy Jesús Puente second. The change followed the approval of the initial candidacy by the provincial party and the PSOE organisation in Castilla y León.
In Albacete, the party changed the proposed candidates for Congress and the Senate. The revised Congress slate included Amparo Torres Valencoso, Javier Navarro López, Luscinda Carreres Villena and Eliseo Fernández Medina, while Francisco “Francho” Tierraseca Galdón appeared on the Senate slate. Emilio Sáez, the former mayor proposed for Congress, rejected the change and stood for the Senate instead. In Badajoz, Rafael Lemus was moved from the top Senate position and replaced by José Luis Quintana, the Government delegate in Extremadura.
