The president of the Government and socialist candidate for reelection, Pedro Sánchez, has announced this Sunday in Alcorcón (Madrid) the creation of a new legal figure called "friendship unit", which would make it possible to officially recognize certain personal relationships in a manner similar to marriages and domestic partnerships. This is one of the main novelties of the electoral program with which the PSOE will be contesting the general elections on November 29, presented at a packed campaign rally at the Polideportivo Los Cantos, where the socialist leader has also promised new assistance for families, measures aimed at self-employed workers, and a tightening of taxation on large real-estate owners.
The proposal for the "friendship unit" seeks to expand administrative recognition of personal ties beyond marital or partner relationships. However, Sánchez has not yet specified how these units would be constituted, what requirements their members would have to meet, or what specific rights they could exercise before the administrations. He has also not clarified whether recognition would have tax, asset, or social benefits consequences—issues that would require subsequent regulatory development. The initiative is thus added to the body of commitments with which the socialists seek to expand their civil rights agenda.
The announcement formed part of a set of proposals that Sánchez presented as a preview of a new legislature. "This is a starter of what we are going to do in the next four years", he proclaimed to party members and supporters gathered at the Madrid venue, where he has again insisted that the PSOE can mobilize the progressive electorate to prevent a change of Government. The president has put numbers to that goal: "Keep two figures in mind: 75 and 176. With 75% turnout we will achieve an absolute majority of 176 deputies. We are going to achieve a historic mobilization for an epic comeback". This is the electoral target defended by the candidate, not a documented forecast about the outcome of the election.
Four weeks to care for children under eight years old and new aid for self-employed workers
In addition to the new administrative figure, Sánchez has announced a four-week benefit intended for the care of children under eight years of age, with which he aims to expand protection for mothers and fathers during the first years of childrearing. The measure is incorporated into the PSOE’s proposals on work-life balance, although the president has not detailed in his speech the amount of the benefit or the requirements to access it. Its specifics will also need to clarify how it would be coordinated with the work-life balance permits and rights already provided for in labor legislation.
The socialist program likewise includes more support for self-employed workers, one of the groups to which Sánchez has directed part of his commitments. In terms of pensions, the candidate has reiterated his intention to enshrine in the Constitution the annual adjustment of benefits in line with the CPI, with the aim of elevating to constitutional rank the guarantee of purchasing power that ordinary legislation already provides for. The proposal would require a reform of the Magna Carta and, therefore, reinforced parliamentary majorities.
Housing, however, has taken up a large part of the spotlight at the rally. The event began with the screening of a video in which Sánchez pledges to limit the influence of the so-called "vulture funds" in the real estate market and to strengthen protection against evictions. The promise comes after nearly eight years of a socialist government, during which the measures approved have not managed to eliminate evictions or resolve difficulties in accessing affordable housing, especially among young people.
The announcement that has sparked one of the biggest rounds of applause from the public has been the commitment to create new taxes for investment funds and large property owners that keep homes empty, put them to use for tourist rentals, or offer them at "absolutely unaffordable" prices. Sánchez has defended the need to act against real estate speculation, although the tax rates, the thresholds for application, and the criteria that would make it possible to identify the affected rentals have not yet been specified. The program also proposes progressively increasing investment in social housing to the 1% of GDP, with the intention of expanding the protected residential stock.
A packed sports hall and new criticism of Ayuso
The act has also served to showcase the PSOE’s mobilization capacity in the Community of Madrid. According to the organization, the Polideportivo Los Cantos has an approximate capacity of 5,000 people, a capacity that has proved too small to host the party members and supporters who were brought in to Alcorcón. Sources from the Madrid PSOE have indicated that even several buses coming from other municipalities in the region had to return without their passengers being able to access the venue.
The atmosphere of the rally has been marked by appeals for the vote and by a claim for the social policies of the Executive. Sánchez has recovered his campaign slogan, "good politics versus bad education", and has once again pitted his political style against that of the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, by referencing the well-known episode of the "I like fruit" during the 2023 investiture debate. The expression has become one of the recurring elements in the confrontation between the president and the popular leader.
Sánchez has also turned to national symbols. At the start of his address, he waved a flag of Spain to claim it as representing the Constitution, democracy, equality, and women’s rights. With that gesture, the candidate linked the institutional message with the proposals for social rights that he went on to lay out later.
The mayor of Alcorcón, Candelaria Testa, acted as hostess and defended the municipal public housing policies, highlighting affordable rental projects aimed at young people. For his part, the General Secretary of the Madrid PSOE and Minister for Digital Transformation, Óscar López, has gone over some of the main measures approved by the Government, including increases to the interprofessional minimum wage and the revaluation of pensions, before presenting 29N as a choice between two political alternatives: "the one from the PP and Vox" and "the one from Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE".
López has closed his speech with an appeal to electoral victory, recovering one of the best-known expressions of former national football team coach Luis Aragonés: "To win, to win, and to win again!". The message has preceded a speech by Sánchez focused on presenting socialist continuity as a guarantee for social policies and in calling for high turnout that will make it possible to improve the results of the PSOE.
Sánchez calls for an "epic comeback" two weeks before 29N
The program presentation comes on the third day of the election campaign, after the events led by Sánchez in La Rioja, Navarra and Baleares. The president has chosen Alcorcón, one of the main municipalities in the southern metropolitan area of Madrid to make known his commitments, while Alberto Núñez Feijóo was holding a rally this Sunday in Santander and Santiago Abascal went to Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona).
The PSOE arrives at this appointment after a term marked by difficulties in pushing forward part of its legislative agenda and with the intention of regaining political initiative through new proposals. Housing, raising children, pensions, and the taxation of large fortunes are part of an electoral offer that Sánchez presents as continuity and an expansion of the measures of his Government.
With all that, the "friendship unity" has been the main novelty of an intervention in which the candidate has sought to combine specific proposals with a call to mobilization. In the absence of knowing its legal development, the initiative opens a new debate about the recognition of different forms of cohabitation and personal support. The president has closed his electoral message with an ambitious goal: to reach 75% turnout and the 176 seats that provide an absolute majority in Congress, an "epic comeback" that the socialists will try to drive forward during the two weeks remaining until the polls.