PSOE crisis: Pedro Sánchez quits
Sunday, October 2, 2016 @ 5:22 PM
PEDRO Sánchez has resigned as leader of the PSOE and the party will now be run by an administrator until a new secretary-general is appointed.
In a show of hands at the Federal Committee meeting called tonight (Saturday), Sánchez's proposal of calling an extraordinary general meeting was shot down with 132 votes against and just 107 in favour.
His proposed meeting was to allow the paid-up subscribers to decide upon who should be their leader, and whether the PSOE should attempt to form an alternative government to the right-wing PP which remains, de facto, in power following two failed general elections in which it lost its majority.
“The emergency congress was to decide both of these issues, and I continue to believe that it should be the paid-up members who decide them – but there's still time,” Sánchez said in his leaving speech.
It was the subscribers who elected Sánchez as leader, and a significant proportion of them are not happy with what they consider to be an in-house coup based upon Sánchez's adamant refusal to support PP leader Mariano Rajoy in his bid to become president – a stance they also largely supported.
Sánchez said being PSOE leader has been 'an honour' and 'a source of pride' and that he 'wishes all the success in the world' to whoever succeeds him, stressing that he and other leavers would 'serve the new secretary-general loyally'.
He had warned on Friday that if the bulk of the party wanted to back its direct rivals, the PP, he would stand down as he 'could not lead up a decision he did not agree with'.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com