What relationship does the PSOE have with the monarchy?

MadridThe criticisms of the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, towards King Felipe VI for having taken a photograph with the far-right agitator Javier Negre are unusual because the PSOE's usual stance is not to question the monarchy. Pedro Sánchez's government has never wanted to open the Pandora's box of the monarchy or republic debate, and it has been more than ten years since the Sociological Research Center (CIS) – chaired for eight years by the socialist José Félix Tezanos – has asked about the institution.

Although historically the PSOE has defined itself as a party with a "republican soul", since the Transition the socialists have embraced the parliamentary monarchy model established in the 1978 Constitution. Since then, the debate on the state model has not been seriously reopened in the party's congresses. In fact, Puente himself argued in a colloquium less than three months ago that the PSOE "has been and is today the main supporter of the monarchy" in Spain, to the detriment of the role he attributed to the right, which he accused of "breaking" the Transition pact.

The truth is that in recent years Vox has significantly raised its tone and has had more clashes with the monarchy than the PSOE, which claims to be a state party, more in line in this regard with the PP than with its openly republican investiture allies. Even at one of the most critical moments for the Spanish monarchy, in the midst of the Joan Carles I scandals, Pedro Sánchez defended the institution. His reaction to the abdication of the emeritus king to Abu Dhabi – despite pressure from Unidas Podemos and the pro-independence parties – was to close ranks with Felipe VI and warn that he would strongly oppose reopening the debate on monarchy or republic. "People are judged, not institutions," insisted the socialist leader in the summer of 2020, when he once again defended the current constitutional design as a guarantor of "stability".

But it is not the first time that a prominent leader of the party has raised his voice against the royal house. The current president of Congress and former president of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, already made headlines when in 2014, coinciding with the abdication of the former monarch, she defended the holding of a referendum on monarchy or republic. This was a position that did not align with that of the PSOE's national leadership – led at the time by Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba – which opted for immobility. Although Armengol has not retracted, ten years later, now as president of the lower house, she remarked that "now is not the time" to have this discussion. "Sometimes some tensions have surfaced, but the majority line of the party, and it doesn't look like that's going to change, has always been not to question the monarchy," reflects Jordi Muñoz, professor of political science at the University of Barcelona.

And the rank-and-file?

In the last socialist congress, held in 2024, the party approved a political resolution that recognizes "the cultural and political tradition of the PSOE" as "republican", albeit accompanied by a defense of "the current constitutional framework", that is, of the monarchy. "Altering this foundation of our political coexistence would be destabilizing," the text reaffirms. Some internal currents, such as Esquerra Socialista or Joventuts Socialistes, did propose amendments that called for reopening the debate on the monarchy, albeit without the capacity to influence the final outcome. The statutes of Joventuts Socialistes, on the other hand, do reaffirm the youth organization's commitment to a "federal, republican, and secular state model".

In the CIS published in April 2015, the last one to include a question about the monarchy – it asked about the degree of confidence in the institution – socialist voters were divided. While 19.2% stated that it generated "no confidence" in them, on a scale of 0 to 10, more than half gave it a 5 or more. In a later survey, commissioned to the private agency 40dB by the Plataforma de Mitjans Independents in 2020, 60% of respondents who identified with the PSOE responded that a referendum on monarchy or republic is necessary. If one were held, 55% of surveyed socialists said they would vote in favor of the republic. A higher percentage than the general population (41%), but well below the voters of the then junior partner in the coalition, Unides Podem, which amounted to 91% of votes against the monarchy.

In Catalonia, in the same year, the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió (CEO) asked about this, and it was found that, among all parties, the voters most divided between monarchy and republic are those of the PSC. 51.9% would opt for the republic, while 29.5% would opt for the monarchy. In the latest CEO barometer, from this July, respondents who identified with Catalan socialists were the ones who expressed the most confidence in the monarchy, only behind those of the PP and above those of Vox, although they only gave it a 3.5 out of 10.