Sánchez again places the general elections in 2027 but keeps the uncertainty about when they will be.

Pedro Sánchez places the general elections in 2027 again, but the big unknown remains intact: when exactly will the Spaniards go to the polls. The president of the Government and secretary general of the PSOE took advantage of a party event in Getafe this Sunday, aimed at launching the socialist candidacies for the regional and municipal elections next year, to also project himself towards the general elections. "I really look forward to the elections in May in Madrid, and the general elections of 2027. And we are going to win them again," he later proclaimed also on his social networks. The message confirms the year that Sánchez has been handling for months, but he again avoids any reference to the month of celebration.

The formulation is not minor. Sánchez expressly mentions "the elections in May in Madrid", whose date is determined by the electoral calendar, and then simply talks about "the general elections of 2027". That is to say, he separates both dates again, but does not clarify whether the general elections will be held before or after the municipal and regional elections on May 23. The president did make it clear in June that there will not be a "super Sunday" that coincides the general elections with those elections, but since then he has kept the specific date open.

"The general elections of 2027", but without a month

The event this Sunday was held precisely to present the candidacies of the PSOE of Madrid for the municipal and regional elections of 2027, with Sánchez, the secretary general of the Madrid socialists and candidate for the Community, Óscar López, and the mayor of Getafe, Sara Hernández. The PSOE has officially begun its race towards the Madrid polls, scheduled for May.

Sánchez has taken advantage of that scenario to go beyond Madrid and outline the next political cycle. "Because in the face of the regression and involution of the PP and Vox, we need a decade of transformation and social advances. Let's work, let's win, and let's govern!", he added in the message disseminated after his intervention. The reference fits with the strategy that the PSOE has been building over the last few months: to present 2027 not as the end of its project, but as the moment in which it intends to achieve another term and extend its political horizon until 2030. The party itself has published internal documents and articles in which it explicitly sets out that objective.

What still does not form part of that discourse is a specific date for the general elections. Sánchez has confirmed that he wants to run again, has reiterated that the polls will arrive in 2027, and has defended his intention to exhaust the term, but in recent weeks he has left enough room for various possibilities to remain open.

Sánchez has already ruled out coinciding them with the municipal elections

One of the few certainties was given on June 5. When specifically asked about the possibility of coinciding the general elections with the municipal and regional elections, Sánchez guaranteed that "there will not be a super election Sunday." His argument was that regional and municipal candidates should be able to develop their own debate, separate from that of the general elections.

This eliminates one date: the 23rd of May 2027, the fourth Sunday of that month and the day scheduled for local elections and for regional elections in several communities, including Madrid. But it does not resolve the rest of the calendar. The general elections could be held earlier, through an early dissolution of the Cortes, or later if Sánchez maintains his intention to approach the end of the term.

Precisely that question, before or after May, is the one the president has been avoiding answering for months. In June he reiterated that the elections would be in 2027, but he avoided clarifying on which side of the municipal elections they would fall and left open the possibility of making decisions based on the parliamentary situation, especially regarding the Executive's ability to approve the General State Budgets.

From "exhausting the term" to admitting a possible "technical advance"

The speech has also been incorporating some nuances. On August 31, in an interview on Cadena SER, Sánchez reiterated his intention to complete the legislature, but acknowledged that there could be what he termed a "technical advance" at the end of the mandate. When asked about the possibility of voting on a specific date in July, he replied: "We are already entering a territory where there can indeed be technical advances or not." He also rejected the idea that it was necessary to call the general elections before the municipal ones, a possibility defended by some sectors of the PSOE itself.

Nine days later he was asked again about the issue on TVE. He confirmed that he wants to be a candidate again, but regarding the date, he limited himself to stating that the elections will take place in 2027 and "at the moment that is most convenient for the general interest of the Spaniards". He also did not specify then whether they would be in spring or summer.

On September 14, he insisted even more on his willingness to remain in Moncloa until the end. "My ambition is to complete the legislature and be president of the Government until the last day," he stated on "El Intermedio," although he again pointed out that he would make the final decision on the call "based on the general interest."

The limit is August 22, 2027, if he takes the deadlines to the maximum

The legal calendar establishes, in any case, a limit. The Constitution states that Congress is elected for four years, except for early dissolution, and the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime establishes the deadlines for subsequently calling the elections. The current Cortes come from the elections of July 23, 2023, so if the Government were to exhaust the mandate and the established deadlines to the maximum, the next general elections would have to be held at the latest on August 22, 2027.

The calculation is based on the fact that the mandate would conclude four years after the 2023 elections. In the absence of an early dissolution, the decree would have to be issued 25 days before the end of the legislature and the elections held 54 days after its publication. EFE therefore places the maximum limit on that August 22, although nothing obliges Sánchez to take the calendar to that extreme.

This leaves a still considerable range. The president could bring forward the general elections to the first months of the year, call them after the municipal and regional elections, or approach the maximum legal limit during the summer. The hypothesis of holding them on May 23 is the only one he himself has expressly ruled out.

The Budgets can be one of the pieces of the calendar

Another pending element is the General State Budgets. Sánchez has defended that the Executive will present them and that the processing will also serve to measure the parliamentary support that the Government has. In June, when asked about the possibility of bringing forward the elections if he did not manage to approve the accounts, he avoided committing to maintaining the legislature under any circumstances and pointed out that decisions would be made when those hypotheses occurred.

The Government itself has used the expression "technical advance" to refer to the possibility that the general elections are held a few months before the limit but considering the legislature politically exhausted. That formula would allow maintaining the discourse of practically completing the four years and, at the same time, avoiding elections at the end of August.

For now, Sánchez has not publicly chosen any of those options. His message from Getafe insists only on the year: 2027.

Getafe opens the Madrid pre-campaign and places the general elections back on stage

The chosen scenario this Sunday was also not casual. The PSOE gathered its Madrid candidates in Getafe to start the race towards elections in May in which Óscar López aspires to the Presidency of the Community of Madrid. Sánchez contrasted during the event the socialist project with that of PP and Vox and defended a new stage of progressive policies.

The day was also marked by the housing crisis and the case of Maricarmen. Sánchez announced that the Government is working "against the clock" to try to bring a new royal decree law to the Council of Ministers on Tuesday and asked parliamentary groups for a "final effort" to be able to validate it later in Congress.

But in strictly electoral terms, the main novelty has been precisely that there has been no novelty in the calendar. Sánchez has said again that he wants to contest the general elections of 2027 and has assured that the PSOE aims to win them, but he has not answered the question that will condition a good part of the next political course: whether Spain will vote before the municipal and regional elections in May or after them.

The phrase published this Sunday summarizes that difference. For Madrid there is a month: May 2027. For the general elections, for now, there is only a year: 2027. The rest of the calendar remains in Sánchez's hands.