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.
- What a mission! My six weeks at a language school in Sevilla - 23 May, 2015 @ 15:30
- Flamenco and the Alhambra as home-time is looming - 16 Apr, 2015 @ 15:05
- ‘Giving light’ and tile-painting in Triana - 10 Apr, 2015 @ 15:47
- Taking my mind off the end of Semana Santa - 6 Apr, 2015 @ 15:53
- Sinners in spiky hats - 2 Apr, 2015 @ 09:01
- The suspense is growing for Semana Santa - 29 Mar, 2015 @ 10:48
- A Mesquita and a mosquito - 23 Mar, 2015 @ 19:58
- Just the weather for a solar eclipse - 20 Mar, 2015 @ 18:51
- A Roman market and St Patrick’s Day in Sevilla - 18 Mar, 2015 @ 15:30
- The Spanish sorting hat of doom - 14 Mar, 2015 @ 11:05
“Handsome is, as handsome does”. According to my old granny.
Let’s see how he runs now he has the ball…