Imogen Calderwood
ECONOMIST Pedro Sanchez, 42, has been elected as the PSOE’s new secretary general, with 48.5% of the vote.
His rival for the role, Eduardo Madina, scored 36% of the vote, and former MP Jose Antonio Perez Tapias collected just over 15%.
Nearly 200,000 of the party’s members placed their votes across the country yesterday.
Sanchez’s success is based on his down-to-earth image, in a period of strong anti-politics feeling across post-crisis Spain.
“I am a rank-and-file activist. A year and a half ago I was not a politician,” he said.
“My own equipment is my Peugeot 407, in which I have driven 40,000km in the past eight months, and my allies are the road and party activisits.”
Known as El Guapo – the handsome one – voters see Sanchez as a fresh face for the party.
Although previously relatively unknown in Spanish politics, Sanchez served with the UN during the war in Kosovo, and as a non-elected regional deputy in Madrid.
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“Handsome is, as handsome does”. According to my old granny.
Let’s see how he runs now he has the ball…