With coalition registration closing on 16 October, Podemos wants separate agreements with IU in ten regions ahead of 29N. Antonio Maíllo says IU will negotiate only through Frente Amplio.
A shared electoral label has to be registered before parties can run on a joint list. For Spain’s 29 November 2026 elections, that deadline is 16 October, leaving little time to settle who will negotiate for the left in ten regions. Podemos leader Ione Belarra wants separate agreements with Izquierda Unida, or IU. IU coordinator Antonio Maíllo says his party will negotiate only within Frente Amplio.
Belarra made her proposal on RNE on 15 October. It covers Galicia and Asturias. Cantabria and Euskadi are included too. The proposed map also takes in Navarra and Castilla y León. Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia are on it, as are Extremadura and Andalucía. Her public appeals name IU but leave out Sumar and the new Frente Amplio brand, reviving a format similar to the former Unidas Podemos coalition without those groups in the proposed formula.
Belarra says voters who want to support the left lack that option in several territories. She wants to restore a form similar to the former Unidas Podemos across much of Spain. Podemos leaders in the regions have also approached IU. In Murcia, Víctor Egío says the two organisations have worked together for years and do not need a new formula.
Podemos says the aim is to stop fragmentation from leaving left-wing votes without representation where the electoral arithmetic is less favourable. Belarra has singled out Madrid and Barcelona as different cases: their constituencies are more proportional, she argues, so left-wing votes are less likely to go unrepresented.
Separate talks with regional partners are also under way. Podemos is speaking with Compromís in the Valencian Community. In Aragon, it is talking to Chunta Aragonesista. In the Balearic Islands, negotiations are under way with Ara Més.
Madrid and Barcelona are exceptions to Belarra’s proposal. Podemos is considering running against Frente Amplio in both. In Catalonia, its cooperation agreement with ERC remains in place. In Madrid, differences with the new coalition remain unresolved. Belarra’s case for treating the two constituencies differently rests on their more proportional systems and the lower risk that left-wing votes go unrepresented.
The dispute concerns the negotiating framework as well as the electoral arrangements. Maíllo has rejected talks with Podemos outside Frente Amplio and says IU will not accept separate agreements divided by region. He has said Podemos can join unity deals if it negotiates with the coalition as a whole. He describes IU’s position as negotiating from within Frente Amplio.
Maíllo also objects to the timing. He says the regional proposals had not been raised before the final day of the negotiating period. Spain’s electoral calendar sets the coalition-registration deadline under the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime, or Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General. A separate dispute involving party divisions at local level was covered in this report on Algeciras. It concerned the PP and has no direct bearing on the current negotiations. Maíllo says Frente Amplio’s alliances must remain under one umbrella.
