The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has initiated a new sanctioning proceeding against the President of the Government and PSOE candidate for reelection, Pedro Sánchez, following the video he recorded inside the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía using as a backdrop the famous "Guernica", by Pablo Picasso, a work that alludes to the bombing of the Biscayan town during the Civil War.
In that recording, made in an empty public museum, Sánchez appeared with the "Guernica" behind him and invoked the spirit of "No to war", while boasting of having maintained the same principles, "without double standards", in the face of the war conflicts of recent years in the world and "despite the enormous pressures".
A few hours later, the general secretary of the PP and campaign director, Miguel Tellado, criticized in a message on "X" that Sánchez had been allowed to use the Reina Sofía Museum for that video and reproached him for appropriating the painting. "He has some nerve. Once again, Sánchez abuses the resources that belong to everyone and appropriates the Guernica to record a promotional 'spot' in the electoral pre-campaign," he wrote.
The PP formally conveyed the complaint to the JEC, requesting the removal of the video, that information be requested from the museum about how the recording was organized, and that the Ministry of Culture and its dependent bodies be reminded of the prohibition on placing public facilities and means at the service of candidates during the electoral period, in addition to calling for the opening of a sanctioning proceeding.
The defense of the president argued that the audiovisual piece is limited to a "reflection" on Spain's position "without incorporating electoral messages or requests for votes", and that his words do not amount to an exaltation of the Executive's achievements. It also maintained that the JEC lacks competence to control the cession of spaces at the Reina Sofía and stressed that the recording did not generate extraordinary expenses for the museum.
At its meeting this Thursday, the JEC has sided with the PP and considers that the recording and dissemination of the video could violate article 50.2 of the LOREG, which prevents public authorities from carrying out campaign-like acts using their management achievements during electoral periods, as well as article 53 of the same law, which limits the free use of means provided by public administrations outside the campaign.
According to the body, the president "did not limit himself" to making a generic reflection, but rather "introduced value judgments on the decisions adopted by his Government," and it adds that, even if there had been no additional costs and it had not been necessary to close the museum to the public, Sánchez could access the premises and film the video "under the conditions proper to an institutional visit," taking advantage of his position as head of the Executive.
The JEC orders Sánchez to remove the video from social media and reminds both the Presidency of the Government and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía "of the duty of institutional neutrality" during electoral processes and the prohibition on using public facilities and resources for actions with electoral content.
In parallel, the JEC has rejected another complaint by Vox against Sánchez for announcing, at an event at the Palacio de la Moncloa on the Statute of University Students, a future package of 45 million for university residences. In the body’s view, the president merely limited himself to providing information of general interest, "without electoral connotations or allusions to achievements obtained," and therefore it sees no violation of the Electoral Law nor grounds to open proceedings.
Six accumulated cases and new sanctions
With this decision, Sánchez now accumulates six sanctioning cases from the JEC, two of them in the current pre-campaign. The first of this period was opened after the press conference of October 6 in Moncloa, following the Council of Ministers that approved the two decree laws on housing that Congress had rejected the previous week.
So far, the president has faced fines totaling 6,600 euros for breaching, in different electoral processes, the principle of institutional neutrality established by the LOREG. The first sanction, of 500 euros, was imposed on him in January 2020 for giving a television interview in the middle of the campaign from the Palacio de la Moncloa. Three years later, in October 2023, he received another of 2,200 euros for making statements with electoral content in a presentation in Brussels after a European Council.
Subsequently came another fine in 2024 for using an official event to support the socialist Salvador Illa in the campaign for the Catalan elections, and the latest previous case was opened against him during the Extremadura elections over his criticism of the agreements between PP and Vox.
Another case against the Government spokesperson
Moreover, the JEC has resolved to initiate a sanctioning proceeding against the Minister of Inclusion and Government Spokesperson, Elma Saiz, for the statements she made at the press conference following the Council of Ministers meeting on the 20th, when she referred to the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, as a "specialist" in making "holes in the pockets of pensioners and Social Security accounts".
"The formula used by the accused appears to have the intention of making a contrast between the pensions policy developed during the PP government and the one implemented by the current Executive," the JEC interprets in its resolution.
At the same appearance, the PP also denounced the words of the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, who stated that the Government's housing policy has made it possible to overcome a crisis in the construction sector and highlighted the Executive's capacity to "forge a majority agreement" around that strategy.
However, the arbitral body rules out opening proceedings against her, considering that the "small evaluative significance" of her expressions, although "appreciable", remains "at extremely low levels" and does not reach the necessary threshold for a sanction.