The Socialist conference in Seville, where a new leader will be chosen this weekend, is supposed to set the tone for the party for the next few years. But the weeks leading up to the event have been dominated more by rumour and intrigue than ideas. This hearsay and speculation has focused in great part on which of the two candidates certain heavyweight party figures will put their weight behind. For example, whether José Antonio Griñán, Socialist leader in the party’s stronghold of Andalusia, will support Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba or Carme Chacón. Reports suggest he will back the latter, but former Prime Minister Felipe González, by contrast, has come out in favour of the veteran Rubalcaba … [Read more...] about Spain’s Socialists will get a new leader, but will they get new ideas?
spain general election
Spain’s Socialists don’t know where to turn
A new Spanish government takes office and the year comes to a close, but the end is still not in sight for the existential crisis that the country's Socialist Party (PSOE) is suffering. It's a crisis that one way or another, the PSOE has been going through for about 12 months, ever since José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero let slip, around Christmas of last year, that he might not be the party's candidate in the next general elections. The frenzy of expectation was only partially dampened when Zapatero confirmed he wouldn't be running, and the debate over who would succeed him gathered steam. The “debate” turned into a swift rubber-stamping of the veteran Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba as the … [Read more...] about Spain’s Socialists don’t know where to turn
Spain turns right, but where’s the far right?
Viewed in a certain light - and especially through a myopic leftist lens - the centre-right Popular Party's landslide victory on the anniversary of Franco's death could be seen as an ironic twist of fate, a disquieting rise of the phoenix: The party was, after all, founded by a former minister in Franco’s government and many of its elderly voters were supporters of the regime. Now the PP, led by Mariano Rajoy (who, ironically enough, was born less than 100 kilometres from Franco's birthplace in Galicia in north-western Spain), will have sweeping powers to pass laws and institute reforms. In the run-up to election day, no one wanted to make too obvious the link between the dates - … [Read more...] about Spain turns right, but where’s the far right?