Carlos Cuerpo forgets to ask for the vote for the PSOE on laSexta

This past Friday, Carlos Cuerpo arrived at the first electoral debate of the campaign for the 29N with an unusual responsibility for a minister with a technical profile: defending the PSOE before the cameras at a time of special strain on the Government. For almost two hours, the first vice president responded politely, measured his words, and sought to keep the discussion in the realm of figures.

However, when it was his golden minute, exactly 59 seconds, in the last round of speaking and the time reserved to convince the voters, he ended without expressly asking for the vote for the Partido Socialista.

It was not a close-off foreign to the campaign. Cuerpo claimed the economic advances of the last eight years and warned that they were at risk. "We need the trust of the people," he said, according to the transcript published by laSexta. But he avoided the direct formula that other participants did use to request support for their respective candidacies. The socialist representative had defended the continuity of the Government without mentioning even once, in that final address, the request to vote for the PSOE.

The detail is especially striking for who occupied the lectern. The body is not a militant socialist, it does not appear on the electoral lists for November 29, and it has never stood in a general election. He is an economist and senior civil servant who has built a career in the Administration and whom Pedro Sánchez has turned into one of the main figures in his Executive, first as Minister of Economy, then as First Deputy Prime Minister and, recently, also as the person responsible for Transport.

His presence in the debate was therefore a political bet by the president. Sánchez entrusted the defense of his economic management to a minister who is less linked to internal disputes within the PSOE and with a public image associated with technical solvency. That choice allowed him to have a spokesperson accustomed to negotiating and explaining figures, although the debate also showed the difficulties of transferring that profile to the electoral fight.

A golden minute without expressly asking for a socialist vote

The vice president was the last of the four participants to take the floor. In front of the cameras, he recalled that Spain had managed to combine economic growth and job creation with the protection of homes and businesses.

"We are all aware that today's Spain is not the one from eight years ago," he began, before defending the balance of the policies applied since Sánchez's arrival at La Moncloa.

His conclusion was an appeal for continuity: "If we want to keep building the process that we have been building together over the last eight years, then we need the trust of the people, because everything we have achieved is at risk".

He did not expressly ask to vote for the PSOE, although his message did call for support to extend the action of the Executive. In fact, laSexta presented the intervention as a request for electoral backing.

The difference lies in the language. While Pablo Bustinduy directly requested the vote for Frente Amplio and Juan Bravo defended the change of Government proposed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Cuerpo preferred to talk about trust, continuity, and economic results.

His final intervention was consistent with the tone he had maintained throughout the debate: cautious in manner, not very prone to personal confrontation, and focused on defending his management. But it also left a singular image for the first major televised debate of a general election: the PSOE representative concluded without making an explicit request for a vote for his party.

Outside the 29N lists

The political career of Cuerpo helps to understand his role. Graduated in Economics and an official of the Higher Body of Commercial Technicians and Economists of the State, he developed much of his career in economic institutions before joining the Council of Ministers.

He does not have a PSOE card and he has also not wanted to turn his participation in the Government into an organizational career within the party. As elDiario.es reported when analyzing the 29N candidacies, the vice president will campaign for the socialists, but he will not run for Congress.

His commitment to Sánchez's project, however, is explicit. On October 25, he appeared alongside the president in an electoral video recorded while both ran across an oak pasture. “For four more!”, they proclaimed, in a staged show of the will to continue in charge of the Government.

Sánchez has progressively strengthened his position within the Executive. His rise to First Vice President gave him greater institutional prominence, and the resignation of Óscar Puente, after the train accident in Urda, ended up adding one of the most difficult portfolios in the Government to him.

Cuerpo has been one of the representatives of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, along with the ministers Tolón and García, in attending the religious funeral for the victims of Urda at the Toledo cathedral.

Transport, the responsibility Sánchez has entrusted to him in the midst of the crisis

Cuerpo appeared on laSexta just a few hours after it was known new changes in the management of the public rail companies. His arrival at Transport came after the resignation of Óscar Puente, amid the crisis opened by the Urda accident and the operating problems of the network.

In a short time, he has promoted a renewal of the top leadership at Renfe and Adif. On Friday, the Government approved the appointment of Inmaculada Gutiérrez as president of Renfe in replacement of Álvaro Fernández Heredia, while Joaquim Hortalà assumed the presidency of Adif, vacant after the departure of Pedro Marco.

As reported by El País, the vice president opted for two technical profiles to lead the main entities of the rail system, a decision adopted just a little more than two weeks before the elections.

The change at Renfe took place after a strike by train drivers that had seriously affected the service. At Adif, the appointment responded to the need to fill a vacant presidency amid a review of rail management.

The body had to open the debate precisely with this issue. After moving his recollection to the victims of Urda, he announced the creation of a committee of railway experts which, as he explained, could become the seed of a State pact on infrastructure.

He also defended an investment plan of 19,000 million euros for the next five years, drawn up based on technical criteria on the use and age of the network.

The popular leader, Juan Bravo, questioned in turn the management of the Government and demanded explanations about the maintenance of infrastructure. Cuerpo responded with figures and investment commitments, in a discussion that put his new ministerial responsibility to the test.

Pensions force Cuerpo to talk about sustainability

Another of the relevant moments came during the exchange about pensions. Juan Bravo recalled that the Government had incorporated into legislation a mechanism to periodically review the financial sustainability of the public system, in compliance with commitments made with the European Union.

The PP leader referred to Royal Decree-Law 2/2023, which establishes a triennial assessment of the evolution of system income and expenses and includes corrective measures if certain limits are exceeded.

The so-called closing clause provides that, if the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) detects an excess of net spending with respect to the legal parameters, the Government must negotiate measures to correct it. If these do not come into effect within the planned timeframes, an increase in contributions of the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism is triggered.

Cuerpo defended the need to guarantee the sustainability of pensions and rejected the PP’s interpretations about a possible cut to benefits. The vice president insisted that the Government had strengthened Social Security income and protected pensioners’ purchasing power.

The exchange was of interest because it forced the Socialist representative to address an aspect of the reform that usually remains outside electoral messages: the revaluation of pensions coexists with a legal mechanism for monitoring spending and possible adjustments in system income.

The law does not establish an automatic reduction of pensions every three years. Its correction mechanism allows adopting different measures and, in the absence of an approved solution, provides for an increase in contributions.

The Government itself included that clause in its Fiscal and Structural Plan 2025-2028 sent to Brussels, where it explained that its purpose was to ensure the financial sustainability of the system.

The technical profile versus the requirement to campaign

The debate left Cuerpo in a different position from that of his opponents. Juan Bravo came with the PP’s economic program and focused his attacks on the loss of purchasing power, housing, and the management of infrastructure. Pablo Bustinduy defended the Government’s social policies and called for new fiscal measures on great fortunes. José María Figaredo insisted on linking economic problems with immigration and the national priority proposed by Vox.

Cuerpo opted for a different strategy. He used growth, employment, and wage indicators to defend the eight years of Sánchez’s governments, questioned the PP’s economic promises, and avoided much of the personal confrontations.

He did not always manage to impose his message. Bravo took it upon himself to discuss purchasing power and the sustainability of pensions, while the rail crisis forced the vice president to respond for a ministry that he has just taken on.

His moderate tone contrasted with the harshness of some exchanges, but prudence also had a visible political cost: at the time reserved to ask for the vote, he chose a general appeal to trust.

Sánchez has turned Cuerpo into one of the leading supporters of his management and has entrusted him with decisive responsibilities on the eve of the elections. The minister has agreed to campaign and represent the PSOE on television, although he continues to be an independent without a parliamentary candidacy.