The campaign for the general elections on the upcoming November 29 begins to leave images that go beyond political speeches and confrontations between parties. One of the most notable occurred this Saturday in Fuenlabrada (Madrid), where the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, surprised his wife, Begoña Gómez, with a declaration of love in front of thousands of socialist militants. "Let them hear it loud and clear: I love you", proclaimed the PSOE candidate before both embraced and kissed on stage, amid the applause of the attendees.
"They have tried to break us in every way and they have not succeeded. Today we are more united than ever", Sánchez assured, who also thanked Gómez for her support over the past years. The moment, featuring the couple residing in La Moncloa, has returned attention to the more personal dimension of political leaders, a facet that usually remains in the background but gains greater visibility during election campaigns.
With Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Santiago Abascal, Irene Montero, and Ada Colau among the main candidates for the Presidency of the Government, and with Gabriel Rufián and Emilio Delgado as relevant figures of the ERC and the Broad Front candidacies, the electoral landscape also brings together very different family stories. Some couples met before their protagonists reached the political front line, others began their relationships in the very institutional spaces, and some have followed different paths over time.
Pedro Sánchez and Begoña Gómez: a story that began in 2003 and celebrates twenty years of marriage
Pedro Sánchez and Begoña Gómez met in 2003 during a birthday party in Madrid, when the current President of the Government was still far from becoming one of the main protagonists of Spanish politics. According to both of them in different interviews, the meeting led to a relationship that solidified over the following years. Sánchez came to acknowledge that he had to insist to win her over, while Gómez described that first contact as a love at first sight.
The couple married in 2006 in a civil ceremony officiated by the socialist Trinidad Jiménez and has two daughters. In 2026 they celebrate twenty years of marriage, a stage during which they have moved from a life away from institutional exposure to occupying a prominent place in current Spanish politics. Among their shared hobbies is music, especially concerts and independent bands, a passion they have shown in some of their public appearances.
Begoña Gómez has developed her professional career in areas related to marketing, consulting, and fundraising, and has accompanied Sánchez in different institutional and electoral events. However, her public presence has also been marked in recent years by judicial investigations into her professional activities, which have generated intense political controversy.
The rally in Fuenlabrada offered a different image of the couple. Sánchez has temporarily set aside his electoral proposals to address his wife, thank her for her support, and assert the strength of their marriage. The kiss, the hug, and the "I love you" spoken in front of the party members have turned their relationship into one of the most talked-about moments of the start of the socialist pre-campaign.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Eva Cárdenas: from meeting on a plane to a life between business and politics
The story of Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Eva Cárdenas has a very different origin. According to one of the accounts published about their first meetings, they both coincided during a flight between Madrid and A Coruña in 2013, when Feijóo was president of the Xunta de Galicia and Cárdenas was one of the main executives of the Inditex group. A conversation during that trip is said to have led to new meetings and, ultimately, to a romantic relationship that they have maintained for more than a decade.
Eva Cárdenas has an extensive career in the business world. She was one of the main responsible for the creation and expansion of Zara Home, the decoration chain of the group founded by Amancio Ortega, and developed much of her professional career within Inditex. After leaving the company, she continued to be linked to business and advisory projects, maintaining her own activity apart from the political responsibilities of her partner.
Both have a child in common, born in 2017, and have tried to preserve their family life from media exposure. Although Cárdenas occasionally accompanies the president of the Popular Party at public events, she usually maintains a discreet profile. In an interview granted to Vanity Fair, the businesswoman described Feijóo as a family-oriented person, close and with a sense of humor, and explained that they both maintain their own professional spaces.
The relationship began when both had developed established careers, a circumstance that has marked their way of organizing cohabitation. Cárdenas does not hold organic responsibilities within the PP and has continued to focus on her business activity, while Feijóo has moved from Galician regional politics to the national leadership of his party.
Santiago Abascal and Lidia Bedman: a relationship that combines politics, social media, and family life
In the case of Santiago Abascal, president of Vox, his wife is Lidia Bedman, a content creator specialized in fashion, communication, and lifestyle. Born in Alicante, she has training in Advertising and Public Relations and has developed a career linked to social media, where she shares aspects of her professional activity, fashion-related recommendations, and some moments of her daily life.
The couple married in June 2018 in San Vicente del Raspeig (Alicante) and has three children together. Bedman has built her own digital presence, independent of her husband's political responsibilities, although she occasionally participates in events related to Vox or shares family images alongside the leader.
Among the activities that both publicly display are excursions, walks in nature, and family getaways. Precisely, at the beginning of October, a few days before the announcement of the early general elections, Abascal and Bedman shared images of a day in the countryside with their children, one of those occasions when the politician appears away from rallies and institutional activity.
The relationship also allows observing the connection between politics and digital communication. Bedman uses social media as part of her professional activity, while Abascal has turned these platforms into a prominent tool of his political communication strategy. Despite this exposure, both reserve a good part of their family life for the private sphere.
Irene Montero and Pablo Iglesias: a couple linked to the birth and evolution of Podemos
Irene Montero and Pablo Iglesias represent one of the cases in which the sentimental relationship and the political trajectory have been closely related. Both participated in the development of Podemos, a formation that burst onto the Spanish political scene in 2014 and made Iglesias one of the main leaders of the country. Montero progressively gained prominence within the party until she became Minister of Equality during Pedro Sánchez's first coalition government.
The couple has three children together and has spoken on different occasions about the difficulties of balancing parenting with political activity. Montero has recounted in interviews everyday aspects of her family life, such as organizing schedules, sharing responsibilities, and playtime with their children. A domestic reality that contrasts with the high public exposure that both have maintained for much of their careers.
Their institutional trajectories have followed different paths in recent years. Pablo Iglesias left the political front line in 2021, after leaving the Vice Presidency of the Government and running in the Madrid regional elections. Since then, he has developed journalistic and communication projects, including Canal Red, while Montero continues to be linked to political activity and has been confirmed as Podemos' candidate for the Presidency of the Government for the 29N.
The story of both is tied to the evolution of the Spanish left over the last decade. From sharing responsibilities in Podemos and in institutions, they have moved on to develop different professional activities, although they maintain a common family project.
Ada Colau and Adrià Alemany: from housing activism to an amicable separation
The sentimental situation of Ada Colau, candidate of the Broad Front for the Presidency of the Government, is different from that of the other leaders in this journey. Adrià Alemany is her ex-partner, a circumstance that the former mayor of Barcelona herself made public in March 2025, when she explained that they had been separated for approximately three years. Both had maintained a relationship of about fifteen years and have two children together.
Colau and Alemany met through activism for the right to housing, before the leader arrived at the Mayor's Office of Barcelona in 2015. Alemany, an economist by training, was linked to the mobilizations against evictions and shared with Colau a period in which the Platform of Those Affected by Mortgages gained notable influence in the public debate.
Their relationship coincided with a large part of the political rise of the former mayor, from her activity in social movements to the eight years in which she governed Barcelona. However, both decided to embark on separate sentimental paths and have maintained a collaborative relationship in raising their children. "We get along very well for the kids", Colau explained when she spoke publicly about her new family situation.
The precision is important because some biographical profiles still present Alemany as the current partner of the leader. Colau faces her return to the political front line as a candidate of the Broad Front after having closed that sentimental stage, maintaining with her ex-partner a family relationship that both have tried to preserve.
Gabriel Rufián and Marta Pagola: a relationship that was born between the halls of Congress
The Congress of Deputies has not only been the stage for the political career of Gabriel Rufián, spokesperson for ERC and head of the list of the republican formation for Barcelona. It was also the place where he met Marta Pagola, a journalist linked to parliamentary communication and press officer of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in the Lower House.
They both coincided in their work environment, although from different responsibilities: Rufián as a deputy and spokesperson for Esquerra Republicana, and Pagola as a professional in charge of managing communication and relations with the media of the Basque nationalist group. Those meetings led to a relationship that culminated in June 2022 with a wedding held in Irún, attended by family, friends, and political representatives such as Oriol Junqueras and Joan Tardà.
In January 2024 they had their first child together, the second for Rufián, who was already a father from a previous relationship. Despite the notoriety of the deputy, both have maintained a relatively discreet profile regarding their sentimental and family life, avoiding turning their relationship into a regular element of public communication.
Pagola has its own professional trajectory in the field of journalism and institutional communication, while Rufián continues to be one of the main figures of ERC in Madrid. His story connects two professions that coexist daily in Congress: parliamentary representation and the work of the press teams that accompany political groups.
Emilio Delgado and Elia: rock and concerts as shared hobbies
The journey is completed with Emilio Delgado, leader of Más Madrid and head of the list of Frente Amplio for the Madrid constituency, whose partner is Elia Sánchez Jiménez. Unlike other leaders, Delgado has shared some aspects of his relationship mainly through social media, where both appear in different moments of leisure.
According to the information published about their personal life, the couple has been together for several years and shares their passion for rock music, especially for concerts. Their posts also show getaways, plans related to nature, and sports activities, interests that are part of the more everyday facet of the Madrid politician.
Delgado is the father of a son from a previous relationship, with whom he shares time and family responsibilities. The leader has spoken in various interviews about his concern for the future of new generations, especially on issues related to housing, equality of opportunities, and climate change.
In his social profiles, his two cats also appear, in addition to images of concerts and trips. These details allow for a glimpse into a part of his life away from the Assembly of Madrid and the political negotiations that have ultimately placed him at the forefront of the Madrid candidacy of Frente Amplio.
The families and partners of the candidates also emerge in the 29N campaign
The personal stories of the main candidates reflect different ways of relating private life to the public exposure demanded by politics. While some couples, like Eva Cárdenas and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, have chosen to maintain a discreet profile, others, like Santiago Abascal and Lidia Bedman, share certain family moments through social media. There are also relationships directly linked to institutional activity, such as those of Irene Montero and Pablo Iglesias or Gabriel Rufián and Marta Pagola, and trajectories that have evolved towards a separation, like that of Ada Colau and Adrià Alemany.
In any case, the partners of the leaders have their own professional and personal trajectories, which are not always related to the political activity of the candidates. The electoral campaign can increase their visibility, but their public presence responds to different circumstances and decisions in each case.
The gesture of Pedro Sánchez towards Begoña Gómez in Fuenlabrada has been a particularly visible example of how family life can intrude into a political event. Among the speeches about pensions, housing, and electoral mobilization, the president dedicated a few minutes to his wife and turned a personal declaration into one of the images of the pre-campaign. A kiss and a "I love you" that have also served to look towards the stories that accompany those who aspire to lead the country after November 29.