The National Festival enters the campaign: how each party arrives at 12-O and what Spain wants to project

As of October 12, 2026, the main parties have not yet presented complete and specifically registered electoral programs for the November 29 general elections. The process is in the phase of programmatic "cooking" and pre-campaign: teams, internal calendars, contacts with organizations, and initial message axes, but without finalized comprehensive documents.

According to the press and, in particular, several reports from Demócrata, the early election call has compressed the timelines and forced the parties to work simultaneously on lists, coalitions, and programs, so the processing status of the "program" is uneven, but in all cases still incomplete.

PSOE

PSOE has the most defined internal work scheme, but it is still under development. The Federal Executive has already approved its Electoral Committee and internal calendar, and has formally commissioned the program to Cristina Narbona, party president, who will coordinate its drafting, while Rebeca Torró assumes general coordination of the campaign and María Jesús Montero the strategy (Demócrata). Another specific article details that Narbona is preparing the new program for 29N, combining commitments for the next legislature with the "pending issues" from the 2023 program in housing, regional financing, labor rights, or anti-tobacco legislation (Demócrata).

That text has not yet been made public, but the political mandate is clear: to turn the campaign into a choice between PSOE's "rights model" and the PP–Vox bloc, and to finalize the program in the coming weeks, in parallel with the ratification of candidacies on October 17.

PP

In the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has activated the electoral machine with a campaign committee led by Miguel Tellado and a broad structure of sectoral leaders. The development of the electoral program falls to Alma Ezcurra, Deputy Secretary of Sectoral Coordination (Demócrata). Published pieces indicate that the PP has already advanced some economic axes (taxes, companies, public spending) and a discourse of "decency versus corruption" and "prosperity versus decline," but there is no record yet of the presentation of a comprehensive programmatic document.

The focus, therefore, is on the accelerated construction of the program under this framework of contrast with the current Government, while lists are finalized and debates agreed upon.

Vox

Vox arrives at 29N with a highly ideological programmatic line and, according to its own statements, with a "single clear program for all of Spain", which it intends to maintain without major changes. In this pre-campaign, Santiago Abascal has set three central conditions for a hypothetical Government with the PP: "national priority", deregulation, and "remigration", along with emphasis on housing, immigration, security, and pensions (summary gathered in various reports and analyses from RTVE and El País).

However, the sources consulted do not report, as of October 12, the formal presentation of a complete and specific electoral program for 29N, but rather continuity based on the already known program and its adaptation to the current situation.

Sumar / Broad Front

The space to the left of PSOE has the most open process. Sumar, IU, Más Madrid, and the commons have agreed to run under the brand Broad Front and have announced that they will present their candidacy and project on October 17, just after the legal deadline to register coalitions (Demócrata; Demócrata).

In this case, the "processing status" is clearly one of design and negotiation: coalitions, primaries, and list distribution are being adjusted, with the political commitment to articulate a program focused on housing, public services, and social rights, but without a finalized text yet.

ERC, Junts, PNV, and EH Bildu

Among the territorial parties, the current focus is more on electoral pacts and lead candidates than on publishing complete state programs:

• ERC and EH Bildu have agreed to run again in coalition for the Senate and are also negotiating an ERC–Podem Catalunya candidacy for the Congress, with Gabriel Rufián and Irene Montero as references (Demócrata; Demócrata).
• Junts has announced its lead candidates for the four Catalan provinces (Demócrata), but without releasing a new state program.
• PNV and Bildu, besides exploring cooperation formulas, continue operating on their traditional lines (self-government, own social agenda), with no record yet of a programmatic document for these general elections.

General conclusion

The mid-October snapshot is one of an intense pre-campaign without finalized programs. An analysis by Demócrata describes how parties "intensify contacts to cook their programs": technical teams meeting with companies, employers' associations, and social organizations to incorporate proposals that will be reflected in the final texts.

In summary, all major parties are still in the phase of development and adjustment; some (PSOE, PP, Vox) work on already very defined frameworks, while others (Broad Front/Sumar and territorial partners) combine coalition negotiation with program design. The formal presentation of complete programs will likely be left for the period between the proclamation of candidacies (November 2–3) and the official start of the campaign on November 13.

The Prime Minister is the central figure of the executive power in Spain. His powers and functions are fundamentally defined in the 1978 Spanish Constitution (especially in articles 97 and 98, and partly in articles 99 to 101, 112, 113, and 115). From these, the figure of the Prime Minister is configured as head of Government, responsible for governmental action and the axis of the relationship between Government and the Cortes Generales.

1. Direction of Government action

Article 97 of the Constitution establishes that the Government directs domestic and foreign policy, the civil and military Administration, and the defense of the State, and that it exercises executive function and regulatory power. Within that Government, the Prime Minister:

• Sets the general guidelines of Government policy, both domestic and foreign.
• Coordinates the actions of the ministers and resolves conflicts of competence that may arise between different ministerial departments.
• Assumes the highest political responsibility for the overall action of the Government before the Congress of Deputies.

In practice, this means that the Prime Minister sets the major priorities of the Executive (for example, economic strategy, European policy, or social policy) and arbitrates among the different ministries when there are tensions or divergent approaches.

2. Relations with the Cortes Generales

The Constitution articulates a particularly intense relationship between the Prime Minister and the Congress of Deputies, which is the chamber that grants and can withdraw confidence:

• Investiture (art. 99): the candidate for Prime Minister presents his political program before the Congress and requests the confidence of the Chamber. If he obtains the necessary majority, the King appoints him Prime Minister.
• Ongoing political responsibility (arts. 108 and 111): the Government, and particularly the Prime Minister, are politically accountable before the Congress. This is expressed through questions, interpellations, appearances, and debates.
• Vote of confidence (art. 112): the Prime Minister may submit a vote of confidence to the Congress on his program or on a general policy statement. If he does not pass it, he must resign.
• Motion of censure (art. 113): the Congress may demand political responsibility from the Government through a motion of censure, which must always propose an alternative candidate for the premiership (constructive motion of censure). If approved, the Prime Minister ceases and the proposed candidate is appointed new Prime Minister.

These provisions make the Prime Minister the main interlocutor of Parliament within the Executive and make his legitimacy depend directly on the confidence of the Congress.

3. Appointment, dismissal, and organization of the Government

The Constitution also assigns the Prime Minister a central role in the composition and internal functioning of the Government:

• Proposal for appointment and dismissal of ministers (art. 100): the other members of the Government are appointed and dismissed by the King at the proposal of the Prime Minister. That is, the Prime Minister decides who occupies the different portfolios and when reshuffles occur.
• Configuration of the governmental structure: although the Constitution does not go into detail, it implies that it is the Prime Minister's responsibility, within the framework of laws, to propose the creation, suppression, or modification of ministries and the distribution of competences among them.
• Dismissal of the Government (art. 101): the Government ceases, among other cases, due to resignation or death of its Prime Minister, which underscores the centrality of this figure. After dismissal, it remains in office until the new Government takes office.

4. Dissolution of the Cortes and calling of elections

One of the most relevant powers of the Prime Minister is his ability, with certain limitations, to propose to the King the dissolution of the Cortes:

• According to article 115, the Prime Minister can propose the dissolution of the Congress, the Senate, or the Cortes Generales as a whole, which entails the calling of general elections.
• This power is subject to temporal and material limits (for example, it cannot be exercised when a motion of censure is pending).

Although formally the dissolution is decreed by the King, the political initiative lies with the Prime Minister, which gives him a key tool for managing parliamentary majorities and political crises.

5. Representation of the Government and other functions

The Prime Minister also assumes other relevant functions derived from the constitutional text:

• Representation of the Government inside and outside Spain, both in relations with the Head of State and in international projection (European Councils, bilateral summits, etc.).
• Signing and countersigning of certain acts of the King related to governmental policy, within the general framework of the countersignature system provided by the Constitution.
• Direction of defense policy and coordination with the competent ministries in security and armed forces matters, within the Government's overall responsibility for the defense of the State (art. 97).

In summary, according to the Spanish Constitution, the Prime Minister concentrates the political direction of the Executive, the main interlocution with Parliament, control over the structure and composition of the Government, and a decisive capacity in the relationship between Government, Cortes, and Head of State, making him the central figure of ordinary political power in the Spanish constitutional system.

The last general elections held in Spain were on July 23, 2023, which led to the current XV Legislature. No bloc reached an absolute majority of 176 seats on its own, which required a very tight parliamentary arithmetic and complex investiture agreements. Below is the distribution of seats in the Congress of Deputies, party by party, along with their approximate vote percentage.

Seat distribution in Congress (23J 2023)

The Congress is composed of 350 deputies. After the final count and official proclamation of results, the distribution by political formations was as follows:

In total, the Congress was formed by 11 parties with representation. The sum of all of them reaches 350 seats: 137 for PP, 121 for PSOE, 33 for Vox, 31 for Sumar, 7 for ERC, 7 for Junts, 6 for EH Bildu, 5 for PNV, and one deputy each for BNG, CC, and UPN.

Parliamentary bloc balances

Although the People's Party was the most voted force and the group with the highest number of deputies, it did not manage to form a sufficient majority to govern alone or with its preferred allies. The bloc formed by PP and Vox summed:

• PP (137) + Vox (33) = 170 seats

Even including the UPN seat, this space reached 171 deputies, below the 176 needed for an absolute majority.

On the other hand, the space that made Pedro Sánchez's investiture possible relied on a constellation of forces. The governmental core, composed of:

• PSOE: 121 seats
• Sumar: 31 seats

sums 152 deputies. For investiture and governability, the support of ERC, Junts, EH Bildu, PNV, BNG, and CC was decisive, adding their seats to configure a bloc of 179 deputies in the investiture vote.

Political reading of the results

These results depicted a highly fragmented scenario, with two strong major parties (PP and PSOE), two medium-sized nationwide formations (Vox and Sumar), and a set of territorial parties with a key weight in parliamentary arithmetic. Although PP and Vox improved compared to previous cycles, they did not reach a sufficient majority to govern.

On the other side, PSOE did not win in seats but managed to stay very close to PP in vote percentage and consolidated its position as the axis of an alternative bloc. The role of nationalist and sovereigntist formations (ERC, Junts, EH Bildu, PNV, BNG) and Canarian Coalition was decisive: their seats, although numerically modest, became decisive to tip the majority in a Congress without clear majorities.

In summary, the July 23, 2023 elections produced a plural Congress without absolute majorities, where the detailed seat distribution you have just seen explains why subsequent political negotiation was essential to form a Government.