Spain is the only country nearby with no norm of candidate debates during elections. They're always negotiated based on the interests of who's in government and, in this way, voters are deprived of having sufficient information when it comes to deciding who to vote for. This year, however, beats all the haggling of previous years as the agreement before the four largest Spanish parties had a certainly surprising conclusion: including Vox, who have no parliamentary representation at the state level, to hold a five-way debate. It was lacking any democratic logic, but they all believed, for different reasons, it could end up benefiting them. From PSOE to Podemos and PP and Cs too, they've all accepted it.
The most surprising thing is not that this decision had been taken, but that of the three debate blocks, one was going to be about Catalonia but without any Catalans present. It matters little that parties like Esquerra have very notable representation and their own parliamentary groups. It's almost a fashion for Spanish politics and debates in Spain's media: silencing any dissenting voice and favouring a united rhetoric, thus giving the impression that everyone sees it the same way. And, when Catalans appear, the majority of the time they're ideologically more akin to the Spanish parties, like with Rivera and Arrimadas. Then the public broadcaster accused of a lack of plurality is Catalonia's TV3, despite it having the greatest ideological diversity in Spain in its discussions and debates.
I've argued for years that a law should regulate electoral debates during the campaign to not be at the whims of those in power. To regulate, obviously, the face-to-face debates essential in an election campaign, but also the debates between parliamentary groups, requiring their main candidates to take part to not reduce the public's interest in them. Democracy is not just a collection of laws up to the interpretation of politicians and the legal system. It's an attitude and a daily exercise which has to allow citizens to monitor those in power through their representatives in the Parliament but also through debates, which end up being an essential, necessary tool.