Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero backed socialist candidate María Jesús Montero at the first campaign rally in Cártama, Málaga, on May 1. They called to concentrate the left-wing vote on the PSOE for the May 17 regional elections and defended progressive policies. Sánchez demanded Netanyahu release a Spanish citizen detained on a flotilla to Gaza.
Prime Minister and PSOE Secretary General Pedro Sánchez kicked off the Andalusian election campaign on Friday, May 1, in Cártama, Málaga, alongside Junta presidency candidate María Jesús Montero and former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Before about 1,800 people at the sports pavilion, Sánchez called to concentrate the left-wing vote: “If you want a left-wing Government, vote left and concentrate the vote on who can lead it”. He stressed the need for “institutional allies” in Andalusia for housing and public services policies, warning that “if we give money and they give it away and privatize it we won't achieve what we want”.
María Jesús Montero appealed to Andalusians on public health waiting lists, housing, and dependency to change the script on May 17. She claimed the PSOE as the “architect of the public system” in Andalusia for nearly 37 years and denounced a “campaign of dehumanization” against socialists, including harassment of Begoña Gómez “just for being the wife of a socialist president”. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero stated that “voting PP is the same as voting Vox” and called to abandon “insult, disqualification, dehumanization”.
Sánchez expressed “pride in being socialist and Spanish”, linking it to condemning the “genocide” in Gaza and recognizing Palestine. He demanded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu release Saif Abukeshek, a citizen with Spanish nationality detained in Israel's interception of a flotilla in international waters: “Spain will always protect its citizens; we will always defend international law and we want the freedom of the Spanish citizen illegally kidnapped”. He urged “those who talk so much about homeland” to back this demand.
The Cártama rally, dubbed the PSOE's “Gallic village” in Málaga by Mayor Jorge Gallardo, aims to overturn polls favoring Juan Manuel Moreno's PP. Sánchez touted economic achievements like 22 million contributors, 2.7% growth, and 66% SMI increase, crediting “social democracy”. Montero promised to eliminate health waiting lists by law and aid young people with housing.
