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SOCIALIST leader Pedro Sánchez is facing one of the party's worst leadership crises in history with 17 members of his executive committee – over half – having resigned en bloc.
Sánchez was elected by the militants but his own party members have withdrawn their backing as he has been unable to create a left-wing coalition 'government of change' to topple Mariano Rajoy and his right-wing rivals, the PP.
The socialists, or PSOE, are divided over whether Sánchez should attempt to strike a deal with leftist anti-austerity independents Podemos – the majority are against the idea, despite this being Sánchez's only real option if he wants to get into government – and whether he should vote in favour of Rajoy in the in-house elections, or at least abstain to clear the path ahead for him.
Sánchez has repeatedly blocked Rajoy's attempts to return to power in a minority government – 137 seats out of 350, some way short of the 176 majority he needs – saying it would be a betrayal to those who voted PSOE in their hope of ousting the PP.
Veteran socialist Felipe González, president of Spain from 1982 to 1996 and very closely involved in the country's joining the European Union, believes Sánchez should abstain and form a useful majority opposition with the remaining parties, on the basis that the nation urgently needs a government.
The 17 members of the executive committee who have resigned in an attempt to force Sánchez out are mostly supporters of two dissenting top-flight PSOE members, Andalucía's regional president Susana Díaz and her Castilla-La Mancha counterpart Emiliano García-Page.
In fact, García-Page, 48, himself has resigned from the party's executive committee along with regional president of Valencia, Ximo Puig, 57.
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