Carmen Romero against her ex-husband Felipe González: she joins the support for Pedro Sánchez

Carmen Romero, who was the wife of former President Felipe González until 2008, was present at the Ferraz demonstration in support of President Pedro Sánchez, who decided last week to take some time to reflect on his possible resignation as head of the Executive. This way, Romero—who is not accustomed to public appearances—once again showed her distance from González, both ideologically and politically, since the former socialist president has been one of Sánchez's harshest critics within PSOE in recent years.

Romero, who was also a PSOE deputy in Congress and the European Parliament, was seen in Ferraz alongside Francisca "Paquita" Sauquillo, a prominent anti-Franco activist and party politician who lost her husband in the so-called "Atocha Massacre" of January 1977. This time, about 12,500 people (12,500) gathered in front of PSOE's headquarters in Ferraz, according to the Government Delegation.

During the demonstration in support of Sánchez, LaSexta was able to speak with Carmen Romero, who expressed her support for Pedro Sánchez while she was in the front row of the demonstration. Felipe González's ex-wife stated that the current situation is "harassment of a family that doesn't deserve it," and that "the rules of the democratic game are not being respected." She also pointed out that it is crucial to fight for a democracy that sets the necessary boundaries to guarantee coexistence among citizens, and that these boundaries have been crossed today.

Regarding her past as Spain's first lady during Felipe González's term, it is known that Romero had no intention of becoming first lady nor was she excited about the idea of moving into La Moncloa when her then-husband won with more than 200 deputies in the elections of October 28, 1982.

Upon learning the results, everyone moved to the Hotel Palace in front of the Congress of Deputies. From the balcony of the room, they greeted the gathered crowd, Guerra and Felipe holding hands. The famous photo was taken by César Lucas. Carmen was also there that night; however, she did not greet the public or kiss her husband on the balcony as all her "successors" would do from then on: Ana Botella, Sonsoles Espinosa, Elvira Fernández, and Begoña Gómez.

Since then, the former socialist deputy tried to keep a balance between the enormous media exposure she faced as first lady and her political and union concerns as a UGT member. Romero has kept that low profile for years and rarely releases appearances, although this past weekend she made an exception to show her support for Sánchez.

The Origins of Carmen Romero

María del Carmen Julia Romero López was born in Seville in 1946 into a conservative family. Her father, Vicente Romero, was a military doctor who became a councilman in the Francoist city council of the Andalusian capital. Although she dreamed of being a missionary, in 1964 she began studying at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters.

In those years, Carmen went from her relationship with Christian groups to approaching leftist positions. Those were turbulent times at Spanish universities, and Carmen also had cultural interests.

Her passion for theater led her to become friends with Alfonso Guerra and, through him, to meet a group of young socialists that included her future husband, Felipe González. At that time, she also sang and played guitar in Las Manos, a folk group. However, her favorite genre was rancheras, which she played on the guitar for Felipe.

Proxy Wedding with "Isidoro"

A few weeks after finishing her degree, in July 1969, Carmen agreed to marry Felipe González. However, her wedding was an example that she was also marrying politics. González could not attend the ceremony due to a party commitment, and they married by proxy. The socialist Luis Uruñuela represented Felipe at the wedding.

After a brief honeymoon, they went to a meeting in France with exiled socialists. When Rodolfo Lloplis, still Secretary General, asked González what his clandestine pseudonym was, to González's surprise, it was Carmen Romero who answered, assuring that it was "Isidoro." Romero took the name from a childhood story.

The first years of marriage were financially difficult. Felipe made a living as a labor lawyer, and Carmen taught several hours of French at a high school while preparing for civil service exams. Their first two children, Pablo and David, were born in Seville.

From Seville to La Moncloa

Suresnes 1974. Felipe González and his friends from Seville took control of PSOE, still in exile. Life in Seville ended, and the couple moved in 1975 to Madrid, to an apartment on Pez Volador Street in the La Estrella neighborhood. Carmen never liked living in Madrid and took almost a year and a half to get a position as a literature teacher at the Calderón de la Barca Institute.

As for friends, she felt comfortable with Miguel Boyer and his wife Elena Arnedo, with Carlos Zayas and his partner Massiel, and with businessman Enrique "Pichirri" Sarasola and his wife, Colombian María Cecilia Marulanda.

During the years of the Transition, Carmen avoided the press, although she participated in the election campaigns of 1977 and 1979 and even gave an interview to ¡Hola! as the wife of the presidential candidate. While the Spanish political situation was going through one of its busiest periods, the González-Romero family had their third daughter, María, who was born in 1978 a few months before the Constitution was approved.

Then came the 1982 campaign. Carmen insisted in her statements that she didn't want to take it for granted that they would end up in La Moncloa. In a conversation with Carmen Rigalt, she assured, "I'm not going to act as the president's wife." A mantra she repeated more to convince herself than the rest of the world.

On December 3, they moved into La Moncloa. In the first years, Carmen tried to keep her job at the Calderón de la Barca Institute in the evening shift, but, in the end, she was advised that, for safety and travel reasons, it was better to leave it.

In that first stage, she gave interviews to journalists such as Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Francisco Umbral for El País, and Jaime Peñafiel for ¡Hola!. Jaime gave Carmen a bonsai after their meeting, and that's how Felipe González started his famous collection, which he later donated to the Botanical Garden.

However, Carmen seemed unable to find her place. In interviews, she spoke candidly and gave her opinions on politics and social life without hesitation. She later regretted it when the press and the opposition criticized her. She tried not to attend official events, but sometimes changed her mind or reached agreements with her husband to avoid comments. So, it was never certain whether Carmen would attend or not.

In 1988, she did not attend the official visit of Mario Soares, the Portuguese president, whose wife was surprised and caused an image (two presidents, one wife) that drew attention but caused much indignation when it was learned that Carmen was in Rome, staying at the embassy with security, visiting museums and fashion boutiques.

Her Leap into Politics

In the fall of 1989, Carmen made the decision to leap into active politics and run for Congress for the Cádiz constituency. The opposition heavily criticized the president's wife for entering politics. Criticism that was later forgotten when, fifteen years later, Ana Botella did the same.

Carmen received a lot of media attention during the campaign, and not always for the better. Her "jóvenes y jóvenas" at a rally was criticized and parodied for years. Even so, she won the seat and renewed it in the next three elections. In 2004, she did not run again on the electoral list, which caused comments, and the reasons for her departure from the list were never fully clarified. Five years later, at the suggestion of Sonsoles Espinosa, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero included her on PSOE's list for the European Parliament. She stayed in Brussels until 2014.

Politically, Romero also wanted to set herself apart and keep her positions independent from her husband. Thus, when the split between UGT and Felipe González occurred, Romero tried to bring her husband and Nicolás Redondo closer together. When the party split between "guerristas" and "felipistas," Carmen Romero had no problem being photographed smiling with Alfonso Guerra in the halls of Congress, making her position clear. In case anyone had any doubts, once out of La Moncloa, she said the following in an interview: "I've never been a felipista."

The Divorce

In 1996, after PP's victory under José María Aznar, the González-Romero family left Moncloa for their house in Somosaguas. The health of the marriage had already been in question for years. In 1985, a false rumor linked Felipe González to Merry Martínez-Bordiú, granddaughter of Francisco Franco and ex-wife of Jimmy Giménez Arnau. The woman herself denied it in an exclusive. There were rumors for years of the president's relationships with all kinds of women: actresses, an Andalusian aristocrat, etc. Nothing was ever confirmed, but the media noise of marital crises took a long time to fade.

At the end of 2008, the breakup of the marriage became public, and Felipe González had started a relationship with Mar García Vaquero, sister-in-law of Pedro Trapote and former secretary of the president's close friend, businessman Luis García Cereceda. With her, the former president moved to the Salamanca neighborhood. In 2012, the couple married.

Since then, Carmen Romero has only spoken about her situation on one occasion. It was in 2010 in Vanity Fair, where she stated that she and her husband had been practically separated for years before their divorce. "Twenty years earlier, we'd taken off our wedding rings," she said.

Little is known about Carmen Romero's life today beyond her public appearance in Ferraz to show her support for Sánchez. After her divorce, she was romantically linked to another historic socialist, Madrid native José María Mohedano. A story that was never officially confirmed. Today, she lives far from politics and the press and is happy with her grandchildren and children, meeting her ex-husband at family events.