Colau Headlines Barcelona Rally on Nov. 21 but Skips Most Catalan Events

Colau, the former mayor of Barcelona and now the coalition’s candidate to lead Spain’s government, will spend little of the campaign in Catalonia. She will headline the coalition’s central rally in Barcelona on Saturday, Nov. 21, alongside Urtasun and the Madrid candidate, Emilio Delgado, according to the Catalan daily Ara.

The day before, she will appear at a second Catalan event in the city of Tarragona. Her campaign opened in Madrid, will close there, and she will follow the results on election night from the Spanish capital, because that decision belongs to the coalition’s national committee, her Catalan campaign team told Ara.

Colau’s Catalan dates

Counting a media appearance, Colau has three dates in Catalonia. Besides the Barcelona rally and the Tarragona event, she will speak to the press on 25-N, the day of the yearly Barcelona march for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The Comuns (Colau’s Catalan party) wanted her at the closing event of the campaign on Thursday, Nov. 26, in Cornellà de Llobregat, together with Urtasun. A debate organized by TVE, the public broadcaster, that same day rules her out. Campaign sources told Ara that debates also limit where she can go, and that they receive many requests from Catalonia they cannot meet.

Urtasun runs the campaign in Catalonia

For the other events in Catalonia, Urtasun will lead, with a press briefing in the morning and a rally in the afternoon. He also represents the coalition in Catalan election debates, as he did last Sunday on RTVE and the following day at Pimec, the Catalan small business association.

Colau is the coalition’s face in national debates. She has also given interviews to David Broncano on the TV show La revuelta and to Jordi Wild.

Her Catalan team joked to Ara that she cannot be everywhere at once, since parties in other regions, such as the Chunta Aragonesista, also ask for her. They compared her role to that of Yolanda Díaz, the space’s candidate in 2023, who held only one event in Catalonia that year. Since returning to X, Colau has posted mostly in Spanish, with few exceptions.

A tour of Spanish provinces

The coalition is made up of Sumar, IU, Més Madrid and the Comuns. It wants its candidate in the provinces where it hopes to win seats, as polls forecast a sharp fall in support. Campaign staff said they will focus on the provinces where they won seats last time.

In 2023, Sumar won six deputies in Madrid, five in Barcelona, three in Valencia, two in Seville and one in each of fifteen other constituencies, including Girona and Tarragona.

So far the coalition has confirmed stops in Seville, Zaragoza, Valencia and A Coruña, in addition to Barcelona and Madrid. It would also like to visit the Canary Islands, Castilla y León, the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands, but those trips are not confirmed.

What it means for the vote in Catalonia

In Catalonia, the party expects to hold roughly the support it won three years ago, with housing as its main campaign issue. Most polls point to a decline there. Ara’s own poll gives the coalition four seats in Catalonia, three fewer than in 2023.

For Barcelona residents, the Nov. 21 rally is the one chance to see Colau at a full campaign event in the city. Most of the coalition’s Catalan events, and its local debate appearances, will feature Urtasun.

Source: Ara