On the same September 17, when the Albacete Fair ended, he closed the bar and placed on the door the sign that has caused so much laughter among his clientele: "Closed from the 17th to the 30th to think. My name is also Pedro Sánchez."
The author of the note, who considers that the adjective that best defines him is "joker", thus made fun of the five days of reflection that the President of the Government took in April 2024 to decide whether or not to continue in office. The hotelier did not suspect then that upon returning from his days of "thinking" in Santa Pola (Alicante) his namesake would lie down on the couch for another three days and that from this second deliberation a call for general elections would emerge.
We arrived at his bar, Titi'hs - "once they called asking if it was a brothel" - he tells us about the strange name - precisely because of 29-N, looking for citizens who share a first and last name with the main candidates for the presidency of the Government.
-We come to see Pedro Sánchez, we announce at the bar.
Pedro Sánchez Jiménez, 64 years old, grandson of a Pedro Sánchez, son of a Pedro Sánchez and father of another Pedro Sánchez, comes out of the kitchen, with his apron on and with a surprised face. "I didn't expect you to come, honestly. When you called yesterday, I thought it was a joke," he explains his confusion. "The thing about the poster just popped into my head, but don't see how funny people are. They called me to the beach and everything to laugh. They told me to see if I could talk to him so he could really think about it and leave.
"Here almost all the people are from the PP," he says, already sitting in the private room at the back of the premises, where there is a bull's head because those from the Toro de Albacete Foundation meet here and a lot of Real Madrid posters, as it is also the headquarters of the Don Santiago Madrid club. In this small room where Pedro Sánchez serves us, he serves meals to order for groups.
He has a finger on his left hand bandaged because he burned it while preparing a Madrid stew and on his wrist he wears a watch and a bracelet with the Spanish flag. You don't have to listen to him much to be clear that he doesn't vote for his namesake. "Politics doesn't interest me much, but I'm more of a serious person, I always vote for the PP. And I'm not hiding, huh? I don't get into the curtain. I come in and say, 'Where are mine?'"
Thus, in the 14 general elections in which he has been able to vote - he has only missed those of June 15, 1977 and those of March 1979 because he had not reached the age of majority -, he has always cast the PP ballot or that of his predecessor AP (Popular Alliance) in the ballot box.
And this time, after eight years of socialist government, he is convinced that he will vote for the winning horse. "We are going to retire almost at the same time," he says at first, although later, when remembering that his namesake has been resurrected several times when he seemed to be on his last legs, he hesitates. "I don't trust it, more than anything because something happens at the last minute, some gossip or something. Because otherwise there are plenty of reasons for it to come out."
He gives his candidate, Núñez Feijóo, a but: "He's a little soft, as El Fary said. But he can't push because if he pushes, people run away; "The problem in politics is that you can't tell the truth."
In a clearly visible place at the bar there is another somewhat humorous sign: "It is forbidden to talk about retirement and time." "It's just that you don't see the people, how boring. They don't know how to talk about anything other than time and retirement. How sad, how sad." And this Pedro Sánchez, who has 65 just around the corner, does not want to know anything about retirement. "I have a good time here, why do I want to retire?" Although he may be forced to do so if he loses the premises, where he has been renting for 27 years. "The owners have already died and the children, with whom I have a very good relationship, want to sell to spend it and it seems very good to me."
Your response gives us the opportunity to address a burning issue: how is Pedro Sánchez doing with housing? "I have a house in Albacete and another on the beach [the apartment you are considering], but I live with my second wife in her house. I rented mine for 525 euros from a woman. "I haven't climbed it in two years."
He is concerned, he says, about the difficulties that young people have in accessing housing, although he also distributes wax to them. "They start working and buy a car. We didn't do that before: first the house. 'I come from Egypt, I'm going to India...' How are they going to save like that? They want to have everything but do little: good cars, concerts...".
At 8-9 years old, he exemplifies, he herded "turkeys and sparrows" in Los Chospes, the Albacete village where he was born. At 11, he helped his grandmother sell soft drinks. "We would load Fantas, Cocalocas and beers on the donkey's saddle and put them to cool in the Alquillo caves, next to the lagoons. We would go with a bucket through the lagoon and sell them to the fishermen." At 14 he went as a waiter to Alcudia de Crespins (Valencia), to the Pegaso bar, where he worked and slept. At 21, the owner of the Titis - that's what they were called at first; Three were created - he rented one. And until now.
We talked about all this and more things - Ceuta, Maricarmen, the PSOE campaign around "the strength of love" - before the accident in Urda put everything on the back burner. So we called him to update this article.
"Today Abascal is coming to Albacete, I've been told," he starts the conversation. I won't be able to go see it, but I would like to. It's going to take away young people, you'll see. I talk to many young people and they are moving for him.
-How did you experience the train accident?
-With total helplessness. This man [Óscar Puente] is leaving now, but he has done absolutely nothing the time he has been there. One of those people who repair the tracks, who detect breakdowns, comes through the bar and says that most of the tracks are moving, that the maintenance is terrible.
-When we met, he said that he believed that Feijóo would govern, but that he did not trust him. And now?
