• Ousted PSOE leader gathers overflow crowd of supporters in Zaragoza
• Sánchez raps caretaker commission effort to impose limits on next party leader
Ousted Socialist party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sánchez on Saturday warned the the PSOE faces a clear challenge over whether it wants a party whose future and direction are defined by the vote of the majority of party activists or is defined by the current interim caretaker administration that replaced him following the internal leadership coup in October led by regional bosses and the party’s Old Guard leadership.
Speaking in Zaragoza to an overflow crowd of more than 1,000 supporters as part of his campaign to reclaim the PSOE leadership, Sánchez reacted negatively to the declaration coming from the caretaker commission earlier in the week that a special commission including no Sánchez allies will be in charge of developing a “guide” for adoption by the party that will dictate limits on the party’s future leader as to how and with which parties he or she can forge political alliances.
Sánchez said that moving forward the PSOE needs a strong and autonomous leadership that responds to the will of the party rank and file and not one that is fettered by restrictions placed upon it by regional Socialist party powerbrokers. He said that the governing conservative Partido Popular (PP) of Prime Minister Marian Rajoy is very comfortable with the current moderate leadership of the PSOE and that only by a return to the party’s roots will the Socialists be able to effectively force the PP to give ground in its opposition to reform on a number of social and economic issues.
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