MADRID — Spain’s opposition Socialists re-elected Pedro Sanchez, a fierce critic of the ruling conservatives, as their leader on Sunday, in a political revival likely to threaten the country’s shaky minority government. Sanchez, a former economics professor ousted in a messy internal rebellion last October, comfortably beat two rivals in a poll of party members, taking 50.2 per cent of the vote. Nearly 190,000 card-carrying members of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) were eligible to vote in the election, which was billed as an attempt breathe new life into the struggling 138-year-old party. Sanchez was forced to resign over his staunch refusal to allow Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his Popular Party (PP) to form a minority government, following two inconclusive general elections. "Party members are with Pedro," Juan Jose Orts, a member since 1974, said as he celebrated Sanchez’s win outside PSOE headquarters in Madrid with dozens of other supporters.

Source: Viet Nam News May 22, 2017 03:56 UTC