Miguel Tellado has accused Pedro Sánchez of using public resources after the prime minister filmed a campaign video before Guernica at Madrid’s Reina Sofía. Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo also condemned the use of Picasso’s painting.
On 24 October, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez released a pre-campaign video filmed inside Madrid’s Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. He walks through the museum and speaks in front of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, reviving the slogan “No a la guerra” (“No to war”). Sánchez says the painting shows what happens when barbarism prevails over reason.
Miguel Tellado, secretary general of the Partido Popular and its campaign director, objected to the museum being opened specifically for Sánchez. In a post on X, he accused the prime minister of using public resources to boost his image and of appropriating Picasso’s painting for a campaign advertisement during the pre-election period. Tellado said the 29 November vote would end what he called privilege in politics.
The video forms part of Sánchez’s pre-campaign activity ahead of the 29 November election and sets out his foreign-policy positions. Its message refers to Gaza and rejects dedicating 5% of GDP to defence. It also states that no life is worth less than another. Campaign debate negotiations also featured in an earlier campaign report.
Tellado did not address the substance of Sánchez’s message. The video presents Guernica as a depiction of what happens when barbarity prevails over reason. The painting, held at the Reina Sofía, takes its name from the Basque town bombed during the Spanish Civil War and is associated with civilian suffering and anti-war politics.
Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, the PP’s number two candidate for Congress in Madrid, also criticised the video. She called Sánchez a civil-war agitator and described his use of Guernica as immoral, adding that Picasso would have been appalled.
