Montse Mínguez resigns as spokesperson of the Executive of the PSOE after the real estate dealings of her partner became known.

The ratification of a candidacy for Congress requires distinguishing three moments: territorial proposal, internal approval, and electoral proclamation. In the PSOE, ratification corresponds to the Federal Committee, following examination by the Federal List Commission. In the PSC, the internal designation corresponds to the National Council, at the proposal of the Electoral Commission; the relationship with the federal circuit must be distinguished from that own competence.

1. Procedure within the PSOE

• Opening and schedule. The Federal Executive Commission activates the procedure and establishes the deadlines and instructions for preparing the candidacies. That schedule organizes the participation of the groups and territorial bodies before the federal review.
• Territorial proposals. Local, provincial or island, and autonomous structures intervene in the preparation of the names and their order. The proposals are submitted through the corresponding territorial circuit: the support of a group or a territorial committee constitutes a phase of the procedure, not the definitive approval of the candidacy for Congress.
• Federal examination. The Federal List Commission receives the proposals and territorial reports, examines their composition, and issues the prior opinion. In this phase, modifications may be proposed regarding the lists sent from the territories.
• Definitive proposal. The Federal Executive Commission intervenes in the formulation of the definitive candidacy submitted for ratification, with the prior report of the Federal List Commission.
• Ratification. The Federal Committee adopts the final agreement on the candidacies for the General Courts. Therefore, the opinion of the List Commission should not be confused with the decision of the ratifying body.

This scheme is included in the federal regulation of the PSOE. As an application of the procedure, Demócrata describes the federal review following territorial agreements and prior to the ratification by the Federal Committee.

2. Procedure within the PSC

• Preparation of proposals. The leadership and territorial structures of the PSC organize the preparation of candidacies for the Catalan constituencies. The intervention of the Executive and territorial supports prepare the decision but do not replace the statutorily competent body.
• Proposal of the Electoral Commission. The PSC Statutes assign to the National Council the designation of party members as candidates for public representation positions, at the proposal of the Electoral Commission.
• Acceptance of obligations. Before the formal designation, candidates must sign acceptance of the Statutes, the Ethical Code, the Compliance Model, and the statutory development Regulation.
• Agreement of the National Council. This body adopts the internal designation or ratification. That a territorial federation has supported a person to lead a list does not alone mean that this approval has been completed.

The reference for these competences are the PSC Statutes consulted, from 2021. It is advisable to specify their date: any specific instructions from a later call should not be attributed to that text.

3. Relationship between both circuits and electoral presentation

The consulted documentation describes coordination with the federal procedure for socialist candidacies to Congress but does not reproduce a specific clause that allows affirming, without nuances, that any PSC designation always requires a second ratification identical to that of a PSOE federation. The firm conclusion is the competence of the National Council in the PSC and the Federal Committee in the PSOE.

Finally, party approval is not the electoral proclamation. The approved candidacy is submitted to the corresponding Provincial Electoral Board, with the required acceptances and documentation. The electoral administration verifies the requirements and agrees, if applicable, its proclamation: this is a phase distinct from internal ratification.

The spokesperson of the Federal Executive Commission (CEF) of the PSOE has a mainly communicative function: to convey to society, through the media, the decisions of that body. It is important to distinguish what the Federal Statutes establish from what the Executive's operating regulations specify: the spokesperson role does not constitute an independent political leadership nor replace the General Secretariat.

The specific function of the spokesperson

The most concrete attribution appears in the CEF Regulation: to communicate to society, through the media, the decisions adopted by the Commission. This is the basis for understanding their appearances and public explanations.

In practical terms, their task consists of:

• Transmitting the agreements of the federal leadership, explaining what the Executive has decided.
• Publicly explaining those decisions, their scope, and the political position they express.
• Exercising the interlocution with the media corresponding to the Executive's spokesperson role, within the party leadership's guidelines.

These tasks describe the development of the same communicative function. They should not be interpreted as three separate statutory powers nor as an authorization to decide independently the PSOE's position.

What the Statutes reserve for the General Secretariat

The Federal Statutes consulted identify the secretary general as a “qualified spokesperson” of the Federal Executive Commission and assign them the political representation of the party. This provision is decisive: the specific spokesperson role of the Executive does not displace that statutory responsibility.

The operating regulation also places in the General Secretariat the coordination of the PSOE's policy and strategy and the highest spokesperson role of the CEF. Therefore, it is necessary to differentiate between the general political responsibility of the party leader and the specialized task of the person who usually communicates the Executive's agreements.

What limits the spokesperson role has

The Federal Executive Commission is the body responsible for applying and directing the party's policy. The spokesperson communicates its decisions but does not replace them with their own decisions. Their actions must respect the resolutions of the Federal Congress and the Federal Committee, the agreements of the Executive itself, and the political coordination of the General Secretariat.

Consequently, the mere condition of spokesperson does not imply an autonomous faculty to modify agreements, alter the party's strategy, or assume the competences of other secretariats. If they explain a PSOE position, they must do so based on the decisions or mandates of the competent bodies, not as holder of an independent political power.

Difference from other spokesperson roles

The CEF spokesperson should also not be confused with the spokesperson of a parliamentary group. The former communicates the decisions of the federal leadership; the latter expresses the group's position in the corresponding chamber and performs the functions foreseen for that scope. Territorial and institutional spokesperson roles also have their own space of action, developed in the party's internal regulations.

In summary: the strict answer is that the Executive spokesperson communicates and explains the agreements of the federal leadership. The express attribution comes from the CEF operating regulation; the Statutes place political representation and the qualified spokesperson condition in the General Secretariat. It would not be correct to attribute to the spokesperson, just by holding that position, general powers of leadership or decision.

Montse Mínguez reached the spokesperson position of the Federal Executive of the PSOE in July 2025 after a trajectory combining economic training, professional and teaching experience, sixteen years of municipal politics, and parliamentary and organizational responsibilities. Before replacing Esther Peña, she had been deputy mayor in Lleida, deputy for that province, and secretary general of the Socialist Group in Congress.

Economic training and professional experience

Born in Lleida in 1976, Mínguez holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, where she completed her studies in 1999. She later completed a master's degree in Accounting, Auditing, and Management Control at the University of Lleida, finished in 2013.

Her professional activity included work in the banking and insurance sectors. She also worked as an associate professor at the University of Lleida, teaching subjects related to economics, accounting, and budget management. That economic training continued in her subsequent public responsibilities, especially in the City Council and the Budget Commission of Congress. Her academic and professional experience is detailed in this biographical profile.

2003-2019: municipal trajectory in Lleida

Her institutional career began in 2003, when she was elected PSC councilor in the Lleida City Council. She remained in the council until 2019, during a period in which she assumed executive responsibilities in the municipal governments of Àngel Ros and later Fèlix Larrosa.

Between 2007 and 2019 she was deputy mayor and managed areas such as Economy and Human Resources. In 2015 she became first deputy mayor and, during her last four years in the City Council, also served as spokesperson for the socialist municipal group. Thus, her local experience combined economic management with coordination and political representation functions, as reported by Demócrata when announcing her appointment.

Since 2019: deputy and budgetary responsibilities

In the April 2019 general elections, she headed the socialist candidacy for Lleida and obtained a seat in Congress. After that brief XIII legislature, she was re-elected in the November repeat election. She also renewed her representation in the 2023 elections.

In the Lower House, she assumed the socialist spokesperson role in the Budget Commission, a responsibility linked to her training and municipal experience. Before her appointment as federal spokesperson, she had also been deputy spokesperson of the Socialist Group and was part of the Permanent Deputation. Her parliamentary career can be consulted in the Demócrata profile.

2021-2025: incorporation into the federal leadership

At the 40th PSOE Congress, held in 2021, she entered the Federal Executive Commission as secretary of Labor, Social Economy, and Self-Employment. This position added to her institutional trajectory a responsibility in the party's state leadership, focused on labor and economic matters.

After the July 2023 elections, she was appointed secretary general of the Socialist Parliamentary Group in Congress. From that position, she participated in the internal coordination and organization of the socialist deputies' work, according to this summary of her trajectory.

The immediate antecedent of her appointment was her incorporation into the team of four people responsible for leading the organizational transition after Santos Cerdán's resignation, until the Federal Committee of July 2025. Her appointment as spokesperson was announced on July 4: she arrived, therefore, after a career developed in municipal management, Congress, and party organization.