29N election debate schedule: dates, candidates, times and where to watch them

The Television Academy does not have a specific or exclusive public competence attributed in the consulted electoral legislation to organize electoral debates. It is important to distinguish between organizing a debate through agreements with its participants and exercising the authority that controls compliance with electoral rules. The identified legal framework mainly regulates the obligations of the media and the supervision of the electoral boards, not an organizing mandate in favor of the Academy.

1. What the electoral legislation establishes

The reference norm is the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime, known as LOREG. No provision has been found that mentions the Academy and entrusts it with organizing debates, selecting participants, or establishing their conditions.

Article 66 constitutes the basis of the regime of guarantees for electoral information in the media. Its interpretation is developed in the Instruction 4/2011 of the JEC, dedicated to respecting the principles of pluralism, equality, proportionality, and informational neutrality during the electoral period. This framework does not turn the Academy into an electoral authority nor grant it a power of its own to determine who can intervene.

The Instruction 1/2015 of the JEC modified that regulation regarding significant political groups in the coverage plans of public media. It is a relevant reference to assess the presence of candidacies but also does not assign specific functions to the Academy.

2. What its possible organizing function means

Therefore, the functions that the Academy assumes in a specific debate must be distinguished from the competencies established by law. The material organization, coordination among participants, technical preparation, or moderation conditions are matters that should be identified in the agreements of that debate, not presented as permanent legal attributions.

• Organization and production: no provision has been found that reserves these tasks for the Academy or obliges recourse to it.
• Format and moderation: there is no specific legal authorization for it to unilaterally impose times, thematic blocks, moderators, or intervention rules.
• Selection of participants: an organizational agreement does not replace the electoral guarantees applicable to the coverage and broadcasting of the debate.
• Participation of candidates: no power of the Academy has been identified to compel attendance or sanction an absence.

3. Who exercises electoral control

Electoral supervision corresponds to the electoral boards, according to the LOREG framework and its instructions, and not to the entity producing the event. Therefore, organizing a debate does not equate to resolving with public authority controversies about pluralism, proportionality, or treatment among candidacies. Nor does it allow considering that the intervention of the Academy alone guarantees the legal conformity of any format.

4. The relationship with RTVE

The Law 17/2006 of RTVE assigns the Corporation public service obligations: its article 3.2 requires objective, truthful, and plural information, and provides that it must "facilitate democratic debate and the free expression of opinions." These obligations belong to RTVE; they do not constitute a delegation of electoral competencies to the Academy.

In conclusion: the organizing role that the Academy may play should not be confused with a reserved legal competence. To know its responsibilities in a specific event, one must attend to its organizational agreements, while electoral legality remains subject to the corresponding norms and authorities.

Pedro Sánchez reached the Presidency of the Government in June 2018, after being a Madrid councilor, deputy, and secretary general of the PSOE in two stages. His path included a failed investiture attempt, loss of socialist leadership, and its recovery through primaries. He reached La Moncloa after the successful motion of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy, not after winning general elections (BBC Mundo).

Early steps: membership and advising

Born in Madrid in 1972, Sánchez joined the PSOE in 1993. His training as an economist preceded a trajectory that combined political advising, teaching, and institutional representation. Before holding elected positions, he worked as an advisor in the European Parliament and in the office of the United Nations High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (La Moncloa Biography).

Between 2000 and 2004, he carried out economic advising tasks for the Federal Executive of the PSOE during José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's term. That experience linked him to the work of the socialist leadership before his incorporation into the Madrid City Council (Biographical profile).

From City Council to Congress

His first representative responsibility was as Madrid councilor, between 2004 and 2009, within the socialist group in municipal opposition. In 2009, he entered Congress to fill Pedro Solbes's vacancy. After the 2011 elections, he was out of the Chamber but returned in January 2013, replacing Cristina Narbona (Institutional trajectory).

2014: arrival at PSOE leadership

His leap to the national forefront occurred in July 2014, when he won the membership consultation against Eduardo Madina and José Antonio Pérez Tapias. He succeeded Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and assumed the PSOE Secretary Generalship, also becoming leader of the opposition to Rajoy's Government (Election as secretary general).

2015-2016: elections and internal rupture

In December 2015, he ran for the first time as the socialist candidate for the Presidency. The PSOE came second, with 90 deputies; in the repeated June 2016 election, it obtained 85, again behind the PP (Results collected by Demócrata).

Between both calls, he tried to be invested president through an agreement with Ciudadanos but did not gather sufficient support. Later, his refusal to facilitate Rajoy's investiture through abstention deepened the socialist division. He resigned as secretary general on October 1, 2016 and later gave up his seat to avoid breaking party voting discipline (Socialist crisis of 2016).

2017-2018: return and access to La Moncloa

Outside the leadership and Congress, he toured socialist groups to recover leadership. On May 21, 2017, he won the primaries against Susana Díaz and Patxi López, with more than half the votes. He thus returned to lead the PSOE after months under a caretaker committee (Leadership recovery).

The outcome came after the Gürtel case sentence: the PSOE presented a motion of no confidence against Rajoy. Congress approved it on June 1, 2018, making Sánchez the first president to access the office through this mechanism (The motion in Demócrata).

His appointment was formalized by Royal Decree 353/2018, of June 1. With this, his path from municipal politics to the Presidency of the Government culminated (Official appointment and biography).

One initiative directly dedicated to regulating electoral debates has been identified in Congress during the XV Legislature: the organic law reform project of the General Electoral Regime Law presented by the Government and published on July 24, 2025. It did not become law: it expired on October 6, 2026. Therefore, the count accredited with the consulted information is one initiative, although it does not allow ensuring an exhaustive total that includes all possible questions, motions, or non-legislative proposals.

The identified initiative

It is the Organic Law Project modifying Organic Law 5/1985, of June 19, of the General Electoral Regime, promoted by the Government. Its text was published in the Official Bulletin of the General Courts on July 24, 2025. The proposal modified the regulation of electoral coverage to introduce specific obligations about holding debates and candidate attendance, as well as incorporating changes related to electoral polls.

The content can be consulted in the published text of the project. Its parliamentary progress and expiration appear on the official Congress page.

What it proposed about debates

The reform proposed modifying article 66 of the electoral law. Its main measures were as follows:

• A mandatory debate on public media. During the electoral campaign, publicly owned media had to hold at least one debate among parties running in the elections.
• Mandatory attendance, with justified exceptions. The text established: "Attendance at debates will be mandatory, except for justified cause that prevents it." The competent Electoral Board had to assess that justification.
• Publicity of unjustified absences. Organizing media had to disseminate that unjustified nature when reporting on the electoral campaign.
• Criteria to organize participation. The results of the last equivalent elections and the presence of significant political groups had to be especially considered.
• Prior information to candidacies. Public media had to communicate the debates before the campaign started and, in any case, with a minimum advance of five days.
• Voluntary holding in private media. These would retain the decision to organize debates, subject to the principles provided in the text.

How the number should be interpreted

A presented initiative does not equate to an approved law. In this case, the project contained an express regulation of electoral debates but expired without completing approval. The described obligations were proposals of the project; they should not be presented as obligations that came into force thanks to it.

It is also not appropriate to automatically add all located electoral reforms. The consulted information includes other proposals to modify the electoral law but does not prove that they specifically regulated debates. Counting them just because they share the same reference law would inflate the result.

In short: one directly accredited initiative on the regulation of electoral debates, presented by the Government and later expired. For a count of any kind of parliamentary action, and not only legislative texts, the available material does not allow closing an exhaustive figure.