A leadership crisis emerged within the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), starting on 26 September 2016, amid internal party dissatisfaction with the party's secretary-general, Pedro Sánchez, and a string of election losses and poor results. These circumstances resulted in a party revolt to force Sánchez's dismissal on 28 September, in an episode lasting until 1 October. The ensuing power vacuum and Sánchez's replacement by an interim managing committee, coupled with the party's U-turn to allow a minority government under the People's Party (PP) and its leader, Mariano Rajoy, after a 10-month deadlock on government formation, and the resulting worsening of relations with its sister party in Catalonia, the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), triggered a crisis of a scale unprecedented in the party's 137 years of existence.
The then president of Andalusia, Susana Díaz, had been long considered the most prominent critic of Sánchez and a potential contender for the party's leadership, being the leader of the largest and most important PSOE regional branch and, for years, the only person within the party holding an institutional position of relevance. Ever since Sánchez's first election as PSOE leader—helped by Díaz's own manoeuvres to hold off Eduardo Madina—distrust and rivalry over the party's leadership and political strategy increased between the two.
After the 2015 and 2016 general elections had resulted in the worst electoral results for the PSOE in its recent history, pressure on Sánchez increased. His record as party leader had alienated many of his former allies and pushed them towards Díaz's sphere. The immediate trigger to the crisis was the poor PSOE showing in the Basque and Galician elections in September 2016, which led critics to call for Sánchez's resignation. Sánchez held out and responded by announcing a party leadership race for October–December which he would contest, enraging dissenters and prompting half the members of the party executive committee—the party's day-to-day ruling body—to resign on 28 September. Sánchez refused to step down and entrenched himself within the party's headquarters, generating the largest crisis in the PSOE's history as neither side acknowledged the legitimacy of the other to act in the party's behalf. This situation ended when Sánchez resigned after losing a key ballot in a meeting of the party's federal committee on 1 October, being replaced by a caretaker committee and leaving behind a shattered PSOE.
Commentators predicted that this set of events would allow the party to abstain in a hypothetical Rajoy's investiture, something which was confirmed on 23 October when the party's federal committee chose to backflip and allow the formation of a new PP government in order to prevent a third election from happening. The PSC—associated with the PSOE since 1978—would not abide by the committee's decision and break party discipline, together with eight other PSOE deputies which rejected allowing Rajoy's investiture as prime minister of Spain. Sánchez resigned his seat in the Congress of Deputies and announced a new run for the PSOE leadership in the incoming leadership contest in May 2017, which he would win handily.
Background Pedro Sánchez, a member of the PSOE unknown to the public and much of the party membership, succeeded Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba as Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party on 26 July 2014 at a party extraordinary congress, having won a leadership election held earlier that month with 48.7% of the membership vote to Eduardo Madina's 36.2%. Andalusia President Susana Díaz's support for Sánchez to hold off Madina was a determining factor in Sánchez's victory, as the party's Andalusian membership voted overwhelmingly in favour of Sánchez. Madina's move to trigger a primary election forced Díaz—who was said to be seeking an election by acclamation—out of the leadership race, prompting her to support Sánchez in order to prevent a potential Madina victory.
However, the alliance between Sánchez and Díaz was short-lived. Díaz reportedly intended to become the PSOE candidate for the 2015 general election, putting her support behind Sánchez's election in exchange for Sánchez later paving the way for her arrival. However, Sánchez's own political aspirations, coupled with his perceived failure to cope successfully with the newly-founded Podemos party's growth in opinion polls, as well as personal differences, caused both leaders to grow increasingly distrustful of each other. Díaz took advantage of growing criticism of Sánchez's behaviour among party members, seeking to sway their views in her favour and increase her strength in terms of the growing rivalry between the two. Such was the criticism of Sánchez within the party that it succeeded in causing prominent PSOE members and former rivals such as Eduardo Madina and Susana Díaz, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and Carme Chacón, Felipe González and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, as well as six out of the seven PSOE regional presidents, to abandon their long-standing feuds and unite against Sánchez.
Government formation
The 2015 general election had resulted in the most-fragmented parliament in decades, and the PSOE obtaining its worst election result since the Spanish transition to democracy, with 90 seats and 22.0% of the vote. Podemos and its allies together garnered 69 seats and 20.7%, fairly close to PSOE and threatening the party's hegemony as the main leftist political force in Spain. Under these circumstances, Pedro Sánchez came under criticism for the poor results, as well as for his handling of the post-election situation. Then-acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and C's leader Albert Rivera both suggested a grand coalition between their parties and PSOE, but this proposal met with opposition from Sánchez, who preferred to study alternative pacts. Pablo Iglesias of Podemos laid out stiff terms to even consider starting negotiations for a coalition with the PSOE, whereas Susana Díaz warned Sánchez that the party's position on coalition deals had to be decided "within a federal committee and not by the Secretary General", in a move seen as an attempt to limit Sánchez's autonomy in pact-management.
A party federal committee—the highest party decision-making body between congresses—was held on 28 December, outlining the PSOE's pact policy, including an express rejection of any pact with PP, or negotiations with parties that supported self-determination—Catalan separatist parties, ERC and DL, but also Podemos, which had supported a referendum on independence for Catalonia as an election pledge. Sánchez's critics did not hide their desire for Sánchez to be replaced by someone else at the next party congress, due for February, to which Sánchez responded by suggesting a postponement of the congress until after the formation of a government. The idea met with strong opposition from critics, who publicly proclaimed that the congress should be held "when it is due". Susana Díaz was said to be seeking to replace Sánchez as PSOE leader herself and eventually lead the party into a new general election, securing the support of several party factions which deemed Sánchez's leadership too weak and unreliable in the event of a new general election being held. Valencian President Ximo Puig said during an interview that "if a new election is held, the PSOE must consider a change of candidate" while Castile-La Mancha President Emiliano García-Page commented that "no one disputes the ability of Susana Diaz to be Prime Minister".
Debate over the date for the party congress focused on two clashing positions: that of the party's leadership, headed by Sánchez, who wished the congress to be held in June, and that of Sánchez's dissenters, who favoured it being held as early as April. The result was a victory for the critics' position during another federal committee held on 30 January, where the dates for both the party primary and congress were set for May. This meant that the leadership contest would be over in time for the event of a snap general election, which would not be held until June at the least. However, after Pedro Sánchez announced he would allow party members to vote on any deal he reached with other parties, the Committee allowed Pedro Sánchez to try to reach an agreement to be appointed prime minister, as long as he respected the agreed pact-making red lines.
Party sources indicated the high likelihood of Susana Díaz's candidacy if Sánchez failed in his attempt at becoming prime minister. On 1 February, leaked recordings from the party's federal committee held two days earlier revealed Susana Díaz openly questioning Pedro Sánchez's performance throughout the month after the general election. She, alongside other regional party leaders, highlighted the party's red lines for negotiation and argued strongly against any possibility of an agreement with Podemos, intending to hamper Sánchez's chances of becoming prime minister. After Sánchez's two failed investiture votes, sources reported Susana Díaz as being determined to challenge Sánchez for the party's leadership, but viewing as undesirable the prospect of an attempt to open the issue of the PSOE succession amid government formation negotiations and with a new election looming for 26 June. Now seeking to postpone the congress, on 28 March it was decided that the PSOE leadership race should be delayed "indefinitely" "until the formation of a new government".
Timeline
Lead up to events For months, the internal situation within the PSOE remained at a standstill. Criticism of Sánchez by party dissenters for his hardline stance on Rajoy's investiture, said to be a contributing factor to the country's political deadlock, had been kept at bay by the party's performance in the 2016 general election, with threats from Sánchez's critics to hold him to account for a hypothetical party collapse on 26 June narrowly failing to materialize. This all changed in the run-up to the Basque and Galician regional elections, scheduled for late September 2016. The PSOE branches in both regions were widely seen as being among Sánchez's supporters, prompting dissenters to frame the elections as a test of Sánchez and of the broader political mood in Spain after nine months of political impasse. Party figures such as regional premiers Susana Díaz (Andalusia), Guillermo Fernández Vara (Extremadura), Javier Lambán (Aragon) and Emiliano García-Page (Castile-La Mancha); as well as former figures such as Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba (Sánchez's predecessor as PSOE leader), Eduardo Madina (Sánchez's rival in the party's 2014 leadership contest), Elena Valenciano (former PSOE deputy leader) and Carme Chacón (former Defence Minister), all became involved in a series of disputes with the national party leadership in the weeks leading up to the regional elections, weakening Sánchez's standing and indicating a loss of support within the party.
26–27 September The poor PSOE showing in both Galicia and the Basque Country, being overtaken by Podemos-led alliances and polling record low results, prompted dissenters—led by Susana Díaz—to call for Sánchez's immediate resignation on 26 September. Sánchez refused to step down and announced his plan to hold a party primary election on 23 October, daring his critics to challenge him in a back-me-or-sack-me vote. This move further enraged his opponents, who considered staging a revolt in the federal committee scheduled for 1 October, seeking to topple Sánchez and cancel his plan to hold an early party congress. With party discipline breaking down rapidly, Sánchez's supporters praised his plan to hold an "express" party primary and called for "all out war!" against dissenters, suggesting that the Sánchez–Díaz feud over leadership and political strategy had resulted in a deeply divided party fighting for its very existence.