Spanish Socialist Party meeting ends in chaos as divisions remain
Xinhua, October 2, 2016 Adjust font size:
A meeting of the Federal Committee of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) ended in confusion and chaos after a series of delays and disagreements on Saturday.
The chaos only served to highlight the deep divisions between factions loyal to party leader Pedro Sanchez and to Susana Diaz, the leader of the party in Andalusia and the President of the Andalusian Regional Assembly.
The question now appears to be if the PSOE is now broken beyond repair after a report (later denied by both parties) in the 20minutos online newspaper that Diaz's deputy Juan Cornejo even tried to physically assault the party leader.
Saturday's meeting of the 253 Committee members was aimed to discuss which line the party should take after the resignation of 17 members of the party's 35-person Executive Committee on Wednesday.
Those resignations of people loyal to Diaz from the committee which decides party policy were aimed at forcing Sanchez to step down as leader and open the door to the PSOE allowing People's Party leader Mariano Rajoy to become prime minister of a minority government. Endit