• Socialists resist ‘sorpasso’ challenge from Podemos, lose 5 seats in Congress
• PSOE leader blames Iglesias for second election, rebound by conservative PP
Having lost five seats in Congress in Sunday’s general election, Socialist party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sánchez breathed a sigh of relief Sunday night as he issued a statement confirming his party remains Spain’s leading left-opposition force, albeit weakened in its position to form a progressive coalition alternative to the conservative Partido Popular (PP).
Sánchez directly criticized Podemos (We Can) leader Pablo Iglesias for not having accepted the Socialists’ offer to joing a PSOE-led reformist government coalition following the inconclusive 20th December general election, thereby forcing the country into a second round of elections and presenting the PP the opportunity to rebound from its December showing, the worst-ever in that party’s history.
Sánchez said that although the Socialists won only 85 seats in Congress, five fewer than in the December election outing that had been the PSOE’s worst in history, the party had nevertheless managed stave off a challenge from the Unidos Podemos coalition led by Iglesias to emerge as the leader of the left-opposition and the “most important force for change” in Spain’s electoral scenario. (See Sánchez comments in the video, below.)
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