Spain's candidates: Who is who in European elections 2024?

Up to 33 candidates will run in the European elections across Spain on June 9. In these elections, there is only one constituency, the whole country, which means that the closed list system in Catalonia is the same as in other parts of Spain.

The political campaign started on Friday amid negotiations to form a government in Catalonia after the Catalan election.

The last European elections in 2019 were marked by the candidacies of the two main leaders of the independence push at the time, former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, running for Junts, and former vice president Oriol Junqueras, running for Esquerra Republicana, faces that will not be present in these elections.

But who are the Spanish candidates running in the 2024 European elections?

Toni Comín - Pro-independence Junts party

Last European elections pro-independence Junts was the most-voted political party in Catalonia, with three MEPs in this legislature. The former Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan health minister, Toni Comín, and the also exiled former Catalan minister, Clara Ponsatí.

In these elections, the candidacy called Junts per Catalunya - Lliures per Europa (Together for Catalonia - Free for Europe)  will be led by Toni Comín, and neither Puigdemont nor Ponsatí will be present.

Comín went into exile after the independence referendum held in Catalonia in 2017, along with other members of the Catalan government. Since its creation, he has been vice-president of the Council for the Republic, an attempt at a Catalan government in exile promoted by Puigdemont. 

Like Puigdemont and Ponsatí, he faced several Spanish courts to obtain his seat in the European Parliament. Finally, the Court of Justice of the EU gave him the right to do so.

Comín defended his presence in Parliament as a way to denounce "the Spanish state's repression of the independence movement."

"Our mere presence in the European Parliament was a witness to the Spanish repression in the heart of the European institutions, it was a reminder of the criminal persecution and the authoritarian drift of the Spanish state, which is why they finally accepted the amnesty," he said. 

If the results are repeated, the second on the list is the professor of international law Neus Torbisco, and the third is Aleix Sarri, the current director of the Junts office in the European Parliament.

Teresa Ribera and Javi López - Socialists

The second most voted party in Catalonia in the last European elections was the Socialist Party, which obtained up to 20 seats throughout the state, part of the European parliamentary group Party of European Socialists.

Teresa Ribera, the first on the list, comes from Madrid and is currently the Minister of Ecological Transition of the Spanish government since 2018. Since 2020 she has been the fourth vice president. 

She has no experience in the European Parliament or other European institutions. Still, she is accompanied on the list by Socialist MEP Javi López, a Catalan law graduate, but his professional career has always been linked to the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and especially to the European Parliament.

Its main campaign claim in the European elections is to stop the rise of the extreme right in Europe. The same claim that the Socialists used during the 2023 Spanish election and that allowed the current president, Pedro Sánchez, to revalidate his presidency.

"They are the ones who want to enter the heart of Europe. Those of inequality between men and women, the setback in matters of the LGTBI group and those who generate hatred that then leads to violence," Javi López said referring to extreme right parties. 

Diana Riba - Pro-independence Esquerra Republicana party

The left-wing pro-independence party Esquerra Republicana (ERC) is back with an alliance of pro-independence parties. In addition to ERC, it includes the nationalists Basque EH Bildu, the Galician BNG, and Ara Més from the Balearic Islands.

The first on the list is the current ERC spokesperson in the European Parliament Diana Riba, who entered politics when she ran for the 2019 European elections behind party leader Oriol Junqueras.

She became a public figure after the 2017 referendum, when her partner, the Catalan foreign minister Raül Romeva, was imprisoned.

Her European focus has been on "fighting repression," promoting ecological and feminist policies, and "defending Catalonia's right to self-determination."

During the last mandate, Riba was one of the visible faces of the calls against the Pegasus illegal investigation case, along with other MEPs involved, known as Catalangate.

This time, ERC will do without one of its more experienced MEPs, Jordi Soler. Instead, they have signed up Tomàs Molina, until now a meteorologist at the Catalan public television, whose aim is to contribute to policies on climate change. 

However, if Ara Repúbliques repeats its result of three MEPs, Molina would not enter since number two on the list is Pernando Barrena Arza of Bildu and number three is Ana Miranda of BNG.

Esquerra comes to the European elections after a bad result in the last Catalan elections, where they lost 13 deputies. So, one of their goals is to recover their strength.

"ERC never gives up. Faced with adversities, it always gets up and puts its face up", Riba said. 

Jordi Cañas - Liberal Ciudadanos

Despite not winning any seats in the last Catalan election on May 12, nor the last Spanish election in 2023, the liberal unionist political party Ciudadanos (Cs) has chosen to run in the European elections with a familiar face: Jordi Cañas. 

He is a historian and was a member of the Catalan Parliament between 2010 and 2014, and a member of the European Parliament since 2019, when he was number 6 on the Ciudadanos list. 

Now, however, he will be the main candidate of the party with the goal to get representation in these elections after bad electoral results. Ciudadanos launched the campaign on Friday, positioning the European elections as an opportunity for the party to "start over".

"They [pro-independence parties] know that if we can stay in Europe, it will be the return of Cs to national politics," Cañas said. 

Until now, Ciudadanos has been part of the liberal Renovate Europe group in the European Parliament with 7 seats.

Jaume Asens - Left wing Comuns Sumar

The Spanish anti-austerity left-wing political sphere was divided after the left-wing Sumar split from the anti-austerity party Podemos. In Catalonia, this space is represented by the Comuns, which has allied itself with Sumar.

Its candidate is Estrella Galán, until now secretary general of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid, with a clear commitment of the party to the migration policy that has marked this legislature and will mark the next one in Europe and that polarizes opinions in the chamber. 

Meanwhile, in Catalonia, the visible face is the number two, Jaume Asens. He is a lawyer with a long political career, always linked to the left-wing political space, but with a good relationship with the pro-independence parties.

Asens has been a key piece in Sumar's negotiations with ERC and Junts for the investiture of Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez. 

They have started the campaign claiming to stop the extreme right, like Socialists. They also denounce the rise of the bellicose message in Europe.

"We have to mobilize so that the Europe of solidarity and democracy wins over the Europe of fear, hatred, xenophobia and racism," he said.

In the last European elections, they got 6 deputies, it remains to be seen what result they will get after the split since Podemos, their old partner, is also running.

Irene Montero - Anti-austerity Podem

Despite its split and poor results in the last Spanish elections, where it was left without representation, the anti-austerity Podemos is also running in the European elections.

Irene Montero is the candidate to lead the Podemos list in the European elections. 

Montero was appointed Minister of Equality in the coalition government of PSOE and Unidas Podemos from 2020 to 2023, she was the visible face of the ‘Only yes means yes’ law that placed consent on the table in cases of sexist assaults and pushed the Transsexual bill. 

The leader of Podemos in Catalonia, activist Conchi Abellán, will be part of the Podemos candidacy for the European elections, running in 12th position. 

Podemos wants to "leave behind the paradigm of a regime of war and economic cuts" and bet on "a feminist, equalitarian project that puts peace, public services and the defense of the rights of the working class at the center."

Dolors Montserrat - People's Party

Right-wing People’s Party (PP) is repeating one of the most famous faces of its party in Europe, the Catalan Dolors Montserrat. A member of the European Parliament since 2019, she was first on the list five years ago and was part of former Spanish president Mariano Rajoy's government as health minister. 

One of her goals is to stop the amnesty for pro-independence figures in Europe. The PP's campaign for the European elections focuses on attacks against the Socialists and pro-independence parties. 

"The PSOE has decided to abandon Spaniards in Europe to embrace a criminal in the run," referring to Puigdemont, Montserrat said. 

She has been president of the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament this legislature. From this position, Montserrat authorized a mission of MEPs to Catalonia - made up of members of the right and the extreme right - to analyze the model of the Catalan immersion system in schools and which ended up demanding "equivalent treatment" of Catalan and Spanish languages in classes.

Jorge Buxade - Far-right Vox

Also returning as a candidate for the European elections is Jorge Buxadé from Barcelona, the leader of the fsr-right Vox party. 

A member of Vox's national executive committee, Buxadé has also been a member of the European Parliament since 2019. 

Before joining Vox, he was part of the pro-Francoism Falange Española party, which is also running in these elections.

His candidacy will be part of the European Family of Conservatives and Reformists, the ultra-conservative group that also includes the formation of Italian President Giorgia Meloni.

Vox received just over 1.2% of the vote in Catalonia, a result that would have denied it representation if the constituency was not unique across Spain.