Sánchez turns rally into tribute to Begoña Gómez

Sánchez stages his support for Begoña Gómez before 3,000 people

What is being celebrated when a candidate takes the stage with his vvife, who faces charges, and dedicates a tearful "I love you" to her? A rally. Specifically, Pedro Sánchez's first event as the PSOE's (Spanish Socialist Party) official candidate for the November 29 elections, held at the Tomás y Valiente Arts Centre in Fuenlabrada. The scene was carefully choreographed: an entrance to the song *Malibu* by Rusowsky, Begoña Gómez dancing, a kiss on stage and a standing ovation from the 3,000 people packing the venue.

The emotional script is no side show. Gómez is awaiting trial for alleged influence peddling and embezzlement, and her public appearances at party events had until now been sporadic and never announced. The last time her own people rallied around her was at the Federal Congress in Seville in December 2024. Sánchez made it the centrepiece of his speech: "They have tried to break us in every way possible and they have achieved exactly the opposite. Today we are more united and stronger than ever. So let them hear it loud and clear: I love you."

Ridicule as a campaign strategy

The cynical reading is the most widespread: if the political adversary has turned the court case into a weapon, the affected party turns it into a shop window. The rally worked as an emotional plebiscite on the leader's private life, complete with a red *La fuerza de la gente* T-shirt — Sánchez put it on midway through his speech, and his vvife did the same from the front row. Party officials consulted agree that they had not seen the party this "motivated" in years.

Some see in the scene a copy of the Kirchnerist playbook, with the presidential couple as political capital and the court case as a narrative of persecution. The comparison with Argentina is circulating on social media, though the parallel rests more on aesthetics than on facts.

What Sánchez did not mention: the 30 flats and the resigned spokesperson

The speech had eloquent silences. Not a word about the resignation of the party's spokesperson until this Friday, Montse Mínguez, trinc the controversy over reports about her partner's "30 flats" for rent. Instead, Sánchez once again waved the mantra against "vulture funds" and those who "trade in people's rights," a message that clashes with the property business of the family of the now former MP for Lleida.

The campaign's policy line focused on defending pensions against the "privatisations" that, according to Sánchez, Alberto Núñez Feijóo will carry out if he reaches La Moncloa (the prime minister's office), and on mobilising pogre voters with warnings of "cuts disguised as sacrifices."

Almost the entire top brass in attendance

Practically all the regional party leaders attended except Emiliano García-Page, annoyed that no speaking slots had been scheduled at the preceding Federal Committee, and Salvador Illa, held back by the rains keeping Catalonia on alert. Also nearly all the ministers, including Margarita Robles, who holds no party membership card and will once again, as in 2016, be Sánchez's number two in Madrid. Óscar López, secretary general of the Madrid socialists, summed up the mood: "Pedro is better than ever, he's firing on all cylinders."

With the machinery well oiled and sentimentality as fuel, the question is not whether the electorate buys the narrative, but how long it will hold before the kiss stops covering up the paperwork.