The PSOE campaign will not be played only in rallies. Also on the calendar. Between the electoral call and 29-N there will be several dates that fit with the frameworks that the socialists want to bring to the polls: the confrontation with Donald Trump and the extreme right, democratic memory and the 'grandchild law', feminism and, above all, housing. The milestones can breathe life into a campaign designed to mobilize the left and wave one of its main flags. But the socialist discourse is eroded by several controversies: the resignation of Montse Mínguez as spokesperson for the PSOE and her resignation from running for Lleida, after her partner's real estate businesses came to light; the law firm founded by a PSOE deputy who has intervened in mortgage foreclosures for vulture funds; and the case of Muface, an organization dependent on the ministry of Óscar López, which rejected a tenant's appeal to remain in a home located across from Maricarmen Abascal.
The calendar is not coincidental. When Pedro Sánchez pressed the electoral button, he knew all the anniversaries that could be exploited on the way to November 29. One of the first comes this Tuesday, October 20, when Javier Milei lands in Madrid for a two-day visit. The Argentine president has confirmed meetings in Spain and has already met on previous trips with Santiago Abascal and Isabel Díaz Ayuso, while maintaining a public confrontation with Pedro Sánchez. For the PSOE, its presence offers a useful image to present PP and Vox within the same international current and reinforce the warning that a government of both parties would put rights and freedoms at risk. This "campaign of fear" on the right and the extreme right will thus have a recognizable face and an external dimension.
Pre-campaign with the 'ultra international'
The next milestone will come on November 3, with the midterm elections in the United States. The president is not elected, but Congress is renewed and the result can weaken or strengthen Trump's power. Sánchez has been cultivating contrast with the American president for some time: from his rejection of tariffs to his refusal to increase military spending in the terms demanded by Washington, the president has presented himself as one of the European voices willing to stand up to him. In Ferraz, they see a double possibility in the mid-term elections: a defeat for Trump could be read as a setback for the international far-right; a victory, fuel their mobilization. In both cases, it will be a date that will be exploited in Ferraz's engine room.
Just two days later, on November 4 and 5, Madrid will host the Ibero-American Summit. The list of attendees is not yet closed, but the event can offer Sánchez a useful image for his pre-campaign: that of a progressive host in a region where right-wing governments have gained weight. Among those who could attend are José Antonio Kast, president of Chile; Nayib Bukele, from El Salvador; Santiago Peña, from Paraguay; Keiko Fujimori, from Peru; Daniel Noboa, from Ecuador; Javier Milei or Abelardo de la Espriella, president of Colombia.
The housing flag is waved in November
Although the polarization between blocs and the warning about an eventual right-wing government will be central axes of the campaign, housing occupies a crucial place: it was the immediate trigger for the electoral advance and is a flag that the entire left will try to wave. Sánchez called the elections after Congress overturned the housing decrees, in a climate of mobilization that had intensified after the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal and the protests and camping in Puerta del Sol. The issue will return to the foreground on November 11, with the general strike for housing, and during those days, when the validation of the decrees could be voted on in the Permanent Deputation. It will be a vote with a strong political charge: the parliamentary rejection of these texts was what precipitated the electoral call.
In Ferraz they have been ensuring since the beginning of the pre-campaign that housing will be one of the main banners of the PSOE. In recent weeks, socialist leaders have sought to approach the Tenants' Union and some have participated in protests and camping. But the controversy surrounding Montse Mínguez has turned that bet into a major political problem: the spokesperson for the Executive has resigned from the position out of "responsibility" although with a "clear conscience" and has resigned from going on the lists for Lleida, after it emerged that her partner is in charge of companies that manage thirty rental homes in that province.
Mínguez has defended that it is a family business that complies with the Catalan housing law and that operates in a stressed area; He also described the information as a personal attack. There is no evidence that she manages the business. But the political consequence is difficult to avoid: the PSOE loses its spokesperson and a candidate in the middle of the pre-campaign due to a controversy linked to housing, just when it tries to make this matter its main electoral banner.
This also comes hand in hand with another controversy about Óscar López. The department he directs, through Muface, dismissed the appeal of a tenant who wanted to maintain the rental of a home located in front of Maricarmen's former apartment. López has denied having requested, ordered or signed an eviction and the Ministry maintains that the decision was made applying the criteria of the State Attorney's Office. The controversy has revived the newspaper archive of the minister, who had described Abascal's eviction as "intolerable" and had defended that it should not happen again.
The PSOE closed ranks with both. In the case of Mínguez, before he resigned, Sánchez contrasted the controversy with Ayuso's penthouse and called on the PP to support the housing decrees; Patxi López defended her career and assured that she had never voted in favor of her partner's interests. After his resignation, Ferraz expressed his respect and thanked him for his dedication and commitment. But the resignation does not clear up the political cost: it arrives in the middle of the pre-campaign and affects one of the flags that the PSOE wants to place at the center of its campaign. Added to the other controversies regarding housing, it leaves in the air how much that electoral flank can erode.
Feminism and grandchildren law in campaign
Beyond housing, the last ten days of the campaign will coincide with two dates with a strong symbolic charge for the left, capable of bringing historical memory and women's rights to the center of the electoral conversation. November 20, the anniversary of Franco's death, will once again bring the dictatorship and exile to the fore. And that memory will connect with a controversy very present in these elections: the Supreme Court maintains suspended for November 29 the right to vote of up to 163,020 people naturalized under the Democratic Memory Law, known as the grandchildren law. The law opened the door for children and grandchildren of exiled Spaniards to obtain nationality; Now it is in question whether part of them will be able to vote. The coincidence thus links the heritage of Franco's exile with the political rights of his descendants in the current campaign.
