Spain's electoral board opens a sanctions file against Sánchez over Guernica video

The board's decision

The Junta Electoral Central (JEC) has opened a sanctioning file against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is also the PSOE candidate for re-election, over a video recorded inside the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid. The clip shows Sánchez inside the empty museum with Picasso's Guernica behind him, arguing that Spain has defended its principles in every recent war 'without double standards'. The board said the recording and its distribution could have breached article 50.2 of the electoral law (LOREG), along with the limit on obtaining public resources free of charge outside the campaign period, set out in article 53. Europa Press dates the video's release to Saturday, 24 October, while eldiario.es says it was posted on Monday, 26 October. The JEC decided on this at its meeting on Thursday, 29 October.

What the video says and what the board asked for

In the clip, Sánchez said the painting shows what happens when barbarism overrides reason, and he claimed Spain had defended its principles despite what he called enormous pressures. The JEC asked him to remove the video from every social media profile where it has been shared. It also told him to refrain, during the electoral period, from any action that would use the public resources tied to his office. The board reminded both the Presidency of the Government and the museum of their duty of institutional neutrality, and of the ban on using public facilities for electioneering content.

Opposition reaction

Miguel Tellado, the PP's secretary general and campaign director, criticised the video in a post on X without engaging with its message. He said Sánchez wanted the museum opened to 'inflate his ego' and accused him of appropriating Guernica for a pre-campaign advert. The PP then took its complaint to the JEC, which decided to open the file at its Thursday meeting.

“You have to have some nerve. Once again, Sánchez abuses resources that belong to everyone and appropriates Guernica to film an advertising spot in the pre-campaign.”

A sixth file and the minister's remarks

Sánchez now faces six sanctioning files from the JEC, and this is the second opened during the pre-campaign. The first followed a press conference he gave at the Moncloa palace on 6 October, after a Council of Ministers meeting. In a separate decision, the board partly upheld a PP complaint about remarks by Elma Saiz, minister of Social Inclusion and Migration and government spokesperson. Her comments at the press conference after the Council of Ministers of 20 October 2026 concerned pension policy. The JEC said her statements went beyond an objective account of facts or a general-interest policy, and that they seemed to contrast pension policy under the PP government with the current executive's. It held that these remarks could also breach article 50.2 and the duty of neutrality.

Election context

El Periódico describes the file as the second in this pre-campaign ahead of the election on 29 November. The articles do not describe any penalty, so the board's formal step is the opening of the file and the request that the video be taken down.