At his first campaign rally since being named the PSOE’s candidate for 29 November, Sánchez praised his wife as about 3,000 people applauded.
Rusowsky’s “malibU” filled the Centro de Arte Tomás y Valiente as Pedro Sánchez entered with Begoña Gómez dancing beside him. She kissed him on stage, and the crowd applauded. ABC reported that Sánchez told her he loved her and framed the public display as a response to efforts to drive them apart. He said the pressure had brought them closer.
It was Sánchez’s first rally since the PSOE Federal Committee formally named him its candidate for the 29 November election. Held on 17 October at Fuenlabrada’s Tomás y Valiente Arts Centre, the event marked the start of the party’s campaign after that decision.
Gómez, a party member, rarely appears at PSOE events. She is awaiting a jury trial over allegations of influence peddling and embezzlement; she has not been convicted. The investigation led by judge Juan Carlos Peinado had lasted nearly two and a half years. Sánchez gave evidence as a witness, as did government minister Félix Bolaños.
Gómez’s previous public show of support from party colleagues came at the PSOE Federal Congress in Seville in December 2024. Months earlier, she had attended a European election rally in Benalmádena. That appearance came the day after investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado summoned her to testify as a person under investigation over alleged corruption in her professional activity.
The couple’s entrance had a musical flourish. A separate Madrid concert report covered an arena performance. At Fuenlabrada, attention quickly shifted from the staging to Gómez’s presence and the crowd’s reaction. ABC and Democrata reported an audience of about 3,000.
Sánchez made pensions a campaign issue, warning that Alberto Núñez Feijóo would pursue privatisations if he reached La Moncloa. He also called on progressive voters to mobilise, arguing that the PP would impose cuts under the guise of sacrifice. His warning about privatisation was a campaign claim aimed at Feijóo and the PP.
He did not mention Montse Mínguez’s resignation as party spokesperson. She announced it on Friday after reports about around 30 rental flats linked to her partner. Instead, Sánchez renewed his attacks on investment funds and on people he accused of making money from others’ rights. That message sits awkwardly beside the business interests of the family of the former MP for Lérida.
RTVE reported that Mínguez’s partner, Sergi Vélez, was linked to around 30 rental flats and apartments, and that several tenants had been evicted. Las Provincias estimated the property portfolio’s investment value at about €6.3 million. It also reported links between Vélez and companies registered in Panama. Mínguez said she was taking a step back and had nothing to hide.
Her departure on 16 October reached beyond the spokesperson role. Mínguez also resigned her parliamentary seat and her position as secretary for research and programmes in the PSOE’s federal leadership. She had been due to lead the party’s list in the province of Lérida for the 29 November election, so the PSOE replaced her as its candidate there.
Most of the PSOE’s regional leaders attended. Emiliano García-Page stayed away after objecting to the lack of planned speaking slots at the preceding Federal Committee. Salvador Illa missed the rally because of rain alerts in Catalonia.
Defence Minister Margarita Robles was among those present. She is not a party member and is again due to stand as Sánchez’s number two in Madrid, as she did in 2016.
Óscar López, the PSOE’s secretary general in Madrid, said the party had two electoral aims: keeping Sánchez in La Moncloa and winning the regional presidency at Sol, held by the PP for four decades.
