SOCIALIST leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba has announced his resignation from the party in light of the results of the European Parliamentary elections on Sunday.
The PSOE came second overall, securing 23 per cent of the votes but losing nine of its 23 seats in the Hemicycle, whilst the PP, which won with 26 per cent of ballots in their favour, lost eight seats and were left with 14.
Although the results were similar for the two main parties in Spain's political panorama, PP candidate Miguel Arias Cañete announced triumphantly that the party had 'won' the European elections, whilst PSOE candidate Elena Valenciano said her team needed to carry out some 'urgent reflection' to find out 'where they had gone wrong'.
And the next twist came 24 hours later when Rubalcaba announced in a press conference: “The responsibility for the very bad electoral result is mine, mine and mine.”
“I shall therefore assume my responsibility,” the leader, who was Mariano Rajoy's rival candidate in the November 2011 general elections, stated.
The socialists will hold an extraordinary general meeting over July 19 and 20, only the second for the party since the start of Spain's transition to democracy, during which Rubalcaba will stand down.
He has announced he will not stand for election in 2015, but has not said whether he intends to give up politics altogether.
“It's clear we have not won back public confidence,” said the PSOE leader, referring to the PP's landslide victory in the last general elections, called seven months early, when the then president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero stood down.
“With a result like this, there's something we're not doing right.
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