Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez officially launched his campaign for the November 29 general election in Dos Hermanas, a town in Seville that drew a crowd of more than 5,000 supporters. The location serves as a symbolic stronghold for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in Andalusia, where they currently remain in power. The town is also considered a "lucky city" for the Prime Minister, having served as the starting point for his 2017 bid for the party's general secretariat, as well as his previous campaigns in 2019 and 2023, according to Alejandro Moyano, the deputy secretary for Organisation of the PSOE in Andalusia.
Addressing the crowd, Sánchez emphasized housing as a central theme of his platform. He paid tribute to 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, a prominent figure in Spain's housing protests, stating that "the social cause bears the name of an 87-year-old woman." He echoed her personal plea, telling attendees, "What I have suffered, I don’t want anyone else to go through." The Prime Minister also took aim at his political rivals, the People's Party (PP), characterizing them as a group that has spent eight years spreading "messages of fear" and comparing them to the wolf in the fable of 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'. He further criticized the PP's approach as a choice between "susto o muerte"—fright or death—arguing that they oscillate between hurling insults while in opposition and implementing spending cuts when in government.
Opposition leader and People's Party president Alberto Núñez Feijóo held his own pre-election launch in Madrid on Saturday. Feijóo pledged to work for the millions of Spaniards seeking change and launched a direct rebuttal to Sánchez. He insisted that his background is rooted in management, including the balancing of budgets and maintaining public services, rather than the "saunas or the sewers" implied by his opponent.
The upcoming November 29 vote follows an early election call by the Prime Minister. The electoral landscape has shifted significantly, with 2,769,645 voters residing abroad now called to participate, an increase of over 19%—or 444,335 additional voters—compared to the 2023 election, largely attributed to the "Grandchildren's Law." Furthermore, the total electoral register has expanded by 1.26 million people since 2023, with 1.6 million young citizens now eligible to vote for the first time.
The choice of that town is no coincidence, as it is the largest city in Andalusia where the Socialists remain in power following the most recent regional elections.
The Socialists have a long way to go to win back voters after losing the last series of elections: the 2022 Andalusian poll, the 2023 local and general elections, the 2024 European vote and the Andalusian elections earlier this year.
