PSOE in turmoil as Pedro Sanchez looks for new leadership election

THE problems within the leadership of PSOE appear to be escalating out of control and some of the decisions now being made, don’t actually appear to be particularly rational.

Recognising that there were problems with his leadership and that he was suffering from the perception that he was personally responsible for the failure of the party in recent elections, Pedro Sánchez indicated that he wanted the party governing body at their next meeting on October 1 to approve a leadership election to be held on October 23.

The leaders of the party in both Extremadura and Castilla La Mancha have called on Sánchez to resign whilst former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez has said that if instructed by the party and if he is still leader then Sánchez should allow the PP to form a government and if he won’t then he should resign.

To add to the confusion, 17 members of the Socialist Party’s national executive committee presented their resignations on the evening of September 28, in an apparent attempt to push Pedro Sánchez out of his position as leader of the party.

A number of well-known and senior members of the party have taken part in the resignation, which seems to reflect on the recent resignations from the Labour shadow cabinet in the UK but as Sánchez has already indicated that if he was forced to leave his post, he would immediately stand for re-election, there is a question as to whether this action by the executive will be an empty gesture.

The argument for the resignations is that there may be insufficient members of the committee to allow a vote on October 1 for a new leadership election, but it would it appears just leave the party in limbo. So infuriated is one unnamed Socialist Party supporter in Mérida (Extremadura) with the way things are going in the party that he has chained himself to regional party headquarters.

Unexpected support has come from Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias who tweeted the fact that whilst he had differences with Mr Sánchez, he thought it wrong that a leader elected by grassroots supporters should be forced out by the executive.

This has then reinforced a conspiracy theory that Sánchez is working with Iglesias in order to topple certain PSOE regional governments.

The leadership problem is one that will not just go away and leaves Spanish politics even more confused than it was already.

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