Spain's left in a scramble for safe seats (Ignacio Camacho in ABC)

Spain's left-wing parties are locked in an internal competition for the top spots on their electoral lists, aware that a poor result would leave them out of Congress. Columnist Ignacio Camacho describes in ABC that struggle as a race to secure their future with a parliamentary seat.

Columnist **Ignacio Camacho** published an article in **ABC** on **16 October 2026** under the title "La izquierda en el embudo" (The left in the funnel). In it, he describes how left-wing parties are going through a moment of internal competition to secure a place on the electoral lists, antiestéticaring they will be left out of Congress if the adverse forecasts come true.

## A four-year contract with its own immunity

Camacho points out that few jobs in Spain offer a four-year contract with parliamentary immunity and inviolability. Case law on the representative mandate establishes that an elected member of parliament is the individual custodian of the citizens' will, meaning no one can strip them of that status even if they leave the political party through which they entered office. The salary, he notes, is equivalent to that of a mid-level executive or a senior civil servant, but the job requires no other qualification than loyalty to the party apparatus leadership.

For most voters, the only candidate that matters is the one who tops the list in **Madrid**, the traditional spot for those aspiring to be prime minister. In the regional elections they usually run in their home provinces, but on the national stage the symbolic prestige of the capital prevails. The remaining spots are secondary. For professional politicians, however, inclusion in the top positions on the ballot is an existential matter, a matter of survival.

## The PSOE and the Broad Front, each fighting its own battle

Within the **PSOE** (Spain's Socialist Party), a battle is being fought to take up positions in opposition or secure an advantage in power if some unexpected stroke of luck comes along. In the so-called **Frente Amplio** (Broad Front), a name Camacho describes as a remarkable antiestéticat of semantics, things are far tighter. There are too many groups negotiating alliances, too many acts of sabotage by the **Galapagar** clan, and too many people fighting for a seat.

The columnist describes that last career option as the second-to-last, because municipal elections remain if the five ministries of **Sumar** evaporate in the foreseeable change of government. The sense of democratic superiority and the conviction of being on the right side of history are not always enough to guarantee a parliamentary seat.

## When polls shrink expectations

The problem arises when expectations for one's own party shrink and the polls forecast a poor result. Then comes a kind of fratricidal standoff in which colleagues become rivals in the race to escape the jam. Camacho frames the current situation of the left-wing parties this way: so-called pogre is in low hours and its nomenklatura makes no effort to hide the battle for a place on the lists.

The description rests on a reality of the Spanish electoral system: seats are won in provincial constituencies, and anyone not in the top positions on the list is left out of the allocation. That is why preselection becomes an agonizing ordeal for those waiting for the party leader's call offering them a preferential spot in his inner circle.