Sánchez urges mass turnout at Tarragona rally before 29 November election

A rally after the Urda crash

On Saturday, 7 November, Pedro Sánchez, the PSOE candidate for re-election and acting prime minister, spoke at a pre-campaign event at Refugio 1 on the Moll de la Costa in the port of Tarragona. The PSC put attendance at about 2,000 people. He shared the stage with Catalan president Salvador Illa, Industry Minister Jordi Hereu, who heads the PSOE list in Barcelona, Tarragona mayor Rubén Viñuales and Ione Montalvo, the PSC's list head for Tarragona. It was his second rally since the Urda rail crash, which killed 69 people, following a first one on Friday, 6 November. The official campaign opens on Friday, 13 November, and the general election is set for 29 November.

Turnout as the answer to "involution"

Sánchez presented high turnout as the best answer to what he calls "involution", a label he applied to the PP and Vox bloc led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal. He pointed to the defeat of Donald Trump and the Republicans in the US midterm elections and to Lula's victory in Brazil, predicting that the far-right wave would break in Spain as it had in those countries. To press the point, he cited Pope Leo XIV, who had voted in the American midterms.

“Even Pope Leo XIV has voted.”

He argued that a PP and Vox government would revisit abortion and euthanasia, and promised to write abortion into the Constitution, raise the minimum wage and increase pensions. He framed the choice as one between progress and the "trip to the past" he attributed to the two parties. He closed with a call to mobilize voters.

“If we vote en masse, we send Feijóo and Abascal home, so let's vote, win and govern for four more years.”

Foreign comparisons and the Catalan seat count

Sánchez presented Spain's choices as made at home, not "from Washington, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires or Moscow". He listed his opposition to the war in Iran, his criticism of the "genocide" in Gaza, Spain's recognition of a Palestinian state and his refusal to raise defence spending to 5% of GDP, a level Donald Trump has demanded. Illa said Catalonia had been decisive in the past and would be again. In the July 2023 general election the PSC won 19 seats in Catalonia, while PP and Vox together took 169 seats, short of the 176 needed for an absolute majority. Sánchez asked for a broader majority than the one sought three years ago, and Illa accused the PP of buying witnesses in court proceedings.

PP and Vox combined169

Absolute majority threshold176

PP and Vox combined

169 seats

Absolute majority threshold

176 seats

Data from the article text

Rail policy and the campaign calendar

Sánchez referred to the Urda crash only briefly, blaming the PP for underinvesting in rail maintenance during its years in government. He said it had taken 15 years to reverse the rail spending cuts, and argued that services should be reinforced rather than trimmed. The government's response to the crash followed the resignation of Transport Minister Óscar Puente. The campaign opens on Friday, 13 November, and voting takes place on 29 November.