Vox announced Jordi de la Fuente as its lead candidate in Tarragona on 22 October, despite his past leadership role in the neo-Nazi Movimiento Social Republicano (MSR), which was dissolved in 2018. He is awaiting trial over a July 2019 attack on a centre for unaccompanied migrant minors in El Masnou, Barcelona, in which four people were injured. Prosecutors accuse him of a hate-related offence involving incitement to hatred, hostility, violence or discrimination based on national origin. They seek two years and two months in prison, five years’ disqualification from standing for elected office, nine months of fines, five years’ disqualification from work involving minors and an order barring him from approaching the centre within 300 metres.
The trial is scheduled for 6 July 2027 in Mataró, nearly eight years after the alleged attack. The case remains unresolved as he enters the election campaign. On 23 October, Vox security and immigration spokesperson Samuel Vázquez, also the party’s lead candidate in Ávila, said he believed De la Fuente would be acquitted. He argued that the party’s position should be judged after a final conviction. Vázquez said De la Fuente had the right to defend himself and declined to assess his role in the MSR.
His candidacy is one of several disputes surrounding the lists published ahead of the 29 November election. Vox’s national executive committee, chaired by Santiago Abascal, approved the lead candidates before the formal deadline for submitting candidacies. In Catalonia, Juan José Aizcorbe and Carina Mejías were reported as retaining the first and second places on the Barcelona list, while Ignasi Mulleras, Rafael Villafranca and De la Fuente were selected to lead in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona.
In the PSOE, Francisco Martín resigned as Madrid government delegate on 25 October after being left off the party’s Congress and Senate lists. He attributed his departure to personal reasons. Pedro Sánchez was placed first on the Madrid Congress list, followed by Defence Minister Margarita Robles, Félix Bolaños, Pilar Sánchez Acera and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska. The earlier account of Martín’s resignation covered the immediate dispute over his omission.
Former PSOE spokeswoman Montse Mínguez also stepped aside. She had been due to lead the list in Lleida but resigned after revelations about her partner’s property business, which held a portfolio of more than 30 homes. The departure came as housing remained a basic government slogan and after the eviction of Maricarmen.
Party headquarters also overruled the provincial federation in Palencia, replacing its chosen lead candidate. The rest of the list then gave up their places in protest. Sánchez has placed 11 ministers on PSOE lists. Óscar López, Diana Morant and Ángel Víctor Torres were left off as they prepare to contest regional elections in May 2027.
The PP has renewed 31 of its 52 lead candidates for Congress and 41 of 58 for the Senate. In Madrid, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo and Borja Sémper are among the party’s leading figures, representing different political currents. In Barcelona, Badalona mayor Xavier García Albiol heads the list. The party has also kept Ana Belén Vázquez at the top in Ourense despite the pepper-spray incident in Congress that left several workers ill.
Vox’s lists have changed since July 2023, following the departure of senior figures including Iván Espinosa and Javier Ortega Smith. Santiago Abascal will lead in Madrid, with Montserrat Lluis second and Juan Sergio Redondo third. In Valencia, Carlos Flores is again on the Congress list after a 2022 conviction for habitual psychological violence, coercion, insult and humiliation against his former partner.
Frente Amplio has chosen Ada Colau to lead in Barcelona, while Emilio Delgado heads its Madrid list. Podemos will run separately in Madrid but shares candidacies with the coalition in the Canary Islands and the Valencian Community. In Barcelona, ERC has agreed a joint list with Podemos, led by Gabriel Rufián, with Podemos members in intermediate positions.
In the Basque Country, Maribel Vaquero will lead the PNV list after Aitor Esteban’s mid-term departure. EH-Bildu has selected Oskar Matute as its leading candidate. Its Senate list in Navarra includes Floren Aoiz, a former member of Herri Batasuna’s National Table who was jailed over his relationship with ETA. Jon Iñarritu and Mertxe Aizpurua will leave the lists. Néstor Rego will again lead the BNG list in Galicia, while Cristina Valido repeats for the Canary Islands party.
