One day before the deadline for coalition registration, Izquierda Unida and Podemos have not yet closed an agreement to go together to the Andalusian elections on May 17. Although the candidate of Por Andalucía and federal coordinator of IU, Antonio Maíllo, assured that there would be no “last minute dramas”, what is happening is the same as what happened in May 2022, the deadlines were so rushed that they were late in the registration, Podemos was left out on the legal level of Por Andalucía and its candidates ran as independents.
Maíllo, who was outside Seville, has left the negotiation in the hands of the coordinator of Izquierda Unida Andalucía, Toni Valero, and the general secretary of the Communist Party of Andalusia, Ernesto Alba. On behalf of Podemos, the interlocutors are Nicolás Sguiglia, councilor in the Malaga City Council and member of the Andalusian leadership, and Javier García, head of communication. The general secretary, Raquel Martínez, does not participate as she is on medical leave. Valero and Sguiglia already maintained contact last week from which nothing transpired.
Since October 2024, there has been a proposal on the table defended by IU in which a roadmap was designed to revalidate the coalition months in advance. Podemos has attended none of the party table meetings, despite the fact that the general secretary of this party, Raquel Martínez, and the co-spokesperson of its executive and Andalusian deputy for Córdoba, José Manuel Gómez Jurado, were betting then and now on unity.
In an interview, Gómez Jurado reported that in April 2025 a pre-agreement was reached to go in a coalition and that from “other instances it was understood that it was not a priority for there to be an agreement in Andalusia”, alluding to the state leadership of the party led by Ione Belarra. The Córdoba leader said that in all the meetings held, going in a coalition had been supported, but it was stopped from Madrid.
Podemos abruptly changed its position last Sunday when its candidate for the presidency of the Board, Juan Antonio Delgado, offered an “outstretched hand” to Maíllo, a position that was ratified by the party’s spokesperson, Pablo Fernández, a day later. The purple ones accept Maíllo’s candidacy and the permanence of Movimiento Sumar. In the background there is an extraordinary concern about its electoral weakness after the results obtained by Podemos in the elections in Aragón (it obtained 0.94% of the vote) and Castilla y León (0.74%). Another defeat in Andalusia would further undermine Irene Montero’s aspirations as a candidate for general elections.
Last Tuesday, the Andalusian executive unanimously approved “integrating” into the Por Andalucía candidacy, in which they were already and called for an express consultation with their militancy approved by a very large majority.
Right now, the parliamentary group is made up of five deputies (the minimum required to be established) from the provinces of Seville (Movimiento Sumar), Málaga (IU), Cádiz, Córdoba and Granada, the latter three from Podemos. The proposals for the lists have been made: Maíllo will head that of Seville, Esperanza Gómez (Movimiento Sumar), that of Cádiz; José Antonio Jiménez Ramos (Andalusian People’s Initiative), that of Huelva; and Ernesto Alba (IU), from Malaga.
Right now, the Por Andalucía coalition for the May 17, 2026 elections is made up of IU, Movimiento Sumar, Andaluz People’s Initiative, the Green Party (formerly Verdes-Equo) and Republican Alternative. Izquierda Unida is the one with the greatest territorial roots. It has 5,100 militants, 840 councilors, 62 mayors and they co-govern in 25 Andalusian town councils, according to data from the left-wing federation. Podemos has three councilors in municipalities in which they participated alone and 18 in coalition with IU and other formations. In 2024, when the election of its general secretary, Raquel Martínez, took place, it had about 20,000 registered. In the consultation held on Thursday to empower its leadership to seek “the necessary agreements to achieve the broadest and most unitary candidacy possible for the next Andalusian elections” 5,710 people participated, 81.4% in favor.
The legal deadline to register the coalitions ends at 11:59 p.m. this Friday. The registry has its physical headquarters in the Parliament of Andalusia, which is located in the Macarena neighborhood, the epicenter of Sevillian Holy Week until around 1:30 p.m. tomorrow when the Virgin’s Passage enters the basilica surrounded by a huge crowd.
In 2022, Podemos rushed the negotiation so much, presided over by mutual distrust with IU, that it was formally and legally left out of the candidacy, although its deputies attended as independents. Four years ago it was recorded at 11:57 p.m. The document contains data on the name, acronyms, symbols, constituencies and the management and coordination bodies, among others. But in parallel, Podemos and IU signed another document in which a pure distribution of power was established for supposed institutional positions in the future (on the Parliament Board and bodies of parliamentary extraction), turns in interventions and debates, and distribution of parliamentary assignments. Podemos benefited in all areas. From IU it was called “the document of surrender.”
