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Spanish socialists confirm Pedro Sanchez as PM candidate

Xinhua, June 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) on Sunday confirmed party leader Pedro Sanchez as its candidate for Prime Minister in the forthcoming general elections.

Sanchez stood unopposed for the candidacy, confirming he has restored confidence to the party since replacing Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba as leader in July of last year.

Although opinion polls showed the PSOE to win less than the 29 percent of the vote they took in 2011, 43-year-old Sanchez has helped give a new image to a party which many Spaniards hold responsible for the start of the economic crisis in 2008.

"The years pass and Spanish society continues to face two problems which drain our strength and undermine our social moral. Two challenges which I vow to eradicate: unemployment and corruption," said Sanchez in his acceptance speech.

Recent local and regional elections saw the PSOE regain influence in some areas. An opinion poll published in the El Pais newspaper on Sunday shows Sanchez to be the second best rated political leader in Spain, beaten only by Citizens' leader, Albert Rivera, and well ahead of Podemos' Pablo Iglesias and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Endit