with a state of mind that has nothing to do with the feeling of despondency and sadness that surrounded the Extremaduran elections or the Aragonese campaign. Although all surveys agree that a change of government is impossible in a community in which the PP has governed uninterruptedly since 1987, the development of the Castilian and Leonese campaign could not have been more different. He No to War, that Pedro Sánchez has dusted off 23 years later to express his rejection of the war in Iran, makes the PP uncomfortable and reactivates the spirit of the PSOE, where they even believe that victory is within reach, taking advantage of the division on the right.
The best internal forecasts give it 29 seats, one more than now, and the most pessimistic a drop to 25 deputies, which was the bottom of the socialists in 2015. Sources from the PSOE leadership affirm that they have reached the close of the campaign with a technical tie with the PP, although leaders of the executive of Castilla y León appeal to prudence and warn that the last seats in up to five provinces are going to be played in a few hundred votes. “That all progressives vote for the PSOE, it doesn’t matter if they have voted before for other progressive options, the most important thing is to concentrate the vote on who can win the elections. So no more tedium of [Alfonso Fernández] Manueco nor hatred of [Santiago] Abascal but change, which is what Carlos Martínez represents,” encouraged the useful vote at a rally in Valladolid attended by some 4,000 militants and sympathizers. Half of them stayed outside the Millennium Dome, the same one where Sánchez took a giant step to run for re-election in the 2017 primaries, after the capacity was completed and followed the event on giant screens.
“We cannot run just to win the elections, but to transform this community. That is the objective. I don’t even like losing at table football and we are going to send Mañueco to the bench,” the socialist candidate has urged participation, whom the right cannot label as a Sanchista because he has not supported Sánchez in any organic process: in 2014 he opted for Eduardo Madina and in 2017 for Susana Díaz. His victory would have enormous symbolism. It would be the third time that the socialists have achieved this after the precedents of Demetrio Madrid in 1983, who resigned in 1986 after being prosecuted for a crime of which he was acquitted and which opened the doors of the Junta to the right, and of Luis Tudanca in 2019, to whom Ciudadanos did not want to give the opportunity to govern. “We have a candidate who presents himself with very clear strength, changing resignation for hope. It is not easy, there has been a right-wing government for 40 years, but let’s start by winning on Sunday and then let them fight among themselves,” urged Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport and host in his capacity as provincial secretary of the PSOE.
The socialists have resorted to all their artillery in an event that, for the first time since the European elections in June 2024, has once again brought together Sánchez and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, with Puente as a luxury opening act. “Today Spain, as in 2003, demands peace while the right demands [José María] Aznar, our no to war is a yes to peace and it is the position of a very large majority of Spaniards and it is supported by the PSOE candidacy,” Sánchez claimed.
The president has found a vein in the rejection of the attack on Tehran decided unilaterally by Donald Trump in the face of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s balances and his changes in position: “Being a patriot and being with our allies means, of course, always lending our shoulder but it is also telling them when they are wrong, and this war is a big mistake,” he has reaffirmed his refusal that the United States could use the Rota and Morón bases in the attack on the ayatollah regime. “The dilemma is war or peace, law of the jungle or international order, servility or national sovereignty. We are clear about it: peace, international order and national sovereignty,” he added while a Spanish flag waved behind him on a giant screen.
Sánchez has committed to “putting all the resources of the State to protect” Spaniards from the economic consequences of a war that his Government “does not endorse.” The leader of the PSOE has not specified whether the next Council of Ministers will approve the first package of measures or postpone the decision, “I tell the right and extreme right that the world cannot be set on fire, it cannot be sucked or blown at the same time and that they say no to war so that this war ends as soon as possible,” he stressed in a very long rally that lasted more than two hours.
“How submissive and cowardly these patriots are with Trump and Netanyahu, when Trump kicks Spanish, where are those from Vox protesting? Let them dare to defend Spanish in the United States!”, Zapatero has added to the charge. The former president has also dedicated most of his speech to remembering his opposition to the 2003 Iraq war, which Aznar supported to the point of being part of the photo of the Azores. “23 years ago there was a transcendental moment of how we wanted to present ourselves in the world. That war was a huge disaster, with 300,000 dead and a failed country. But Spain said no to an illegal war that was also immoral. When we won the elections, I withdrew troops from Iraq to demonstrate that commitment, and it was not an easy decision. I still remember George Bush’s call [el entonces presidente estadounidense]”, he recalled before a dedicated audience. “A brave decision had to be made, to tell the leading power in the world ‘hey, we’re leaving there because we don’t believe in that war’, and I thought it was difficult for a president to repeat a decision like that… Until Pedro Sánchez told him no three times. [a Trump]”, he assessed, emphasizing his “firmness” in rejecting the increase to 5% of GDP in defense spending as Washington demands, his denunciation of the “barbarism of Gaza” with 70,000 civilians murdered and now with his refusal to take the offensive on Iran.
“The PSOE will remain in capital letters in history because it never supported those illegal wars, that war that is going to ruin the Middle East even more,” said Zapatero, who has criticized the PP for continuing to feed conspiracy theories. “They are still immersed in self-exculpatory delirium, when I saw Aznar already [Jaime] Mayor Oreja talking about 11-M… A little dignity in the face of the victims and history, the best thing the leaders of the PP who were then in government could do is not talk about March 11 again,” he demanded.
