The

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

(PSOE) held its 38th federal

congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

from 3 to 5 February 2012, to renovate its governing bodies—including the post of secretary-general, which amounted to that of

party leader In a governmental system, a party leader acts as the official representative of their political party, either to a legislature or to the electorate. Depending on the country, the individual colloquially referred to as the "leader" of a politica ...

—and establish the

party platform A political party platform (American English), party program, or party manifesto (preferential term in British and often Commonwealth English) is a formal set of principal goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate, t ...

and policy until the next congress. The congress was called after the PSOE suffered its worst defeat since the

Spanish transition to democracy The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as (; ) or (), is a period of History of Spain, modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system ...

in the general election held on 20 November 2011. Previous secretary-general

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. O ...

had announced in April the same year he would not stand for election to a third term as

Prime Minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the Spanish government departments, ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers (Spain), Council of Mini ...

, announcing his intention to step down as party leader after a successor had been elected. The result was a close race between the two candidates to the party leadership: Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the party's candidate for the 2011 general election and former first deputy prime minister and

interior minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

, and former

defence minister A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

Carme Chacón Carme Maria Chacón Piqueras (; March 13, 1971April 9, 2017) was a Spanish lawyer, lecturer and politician who was minister of Defence from 2008 to 2011 in the cabinet led by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A member of t ...

. The ballot saw Rubalcaba win by a 51.0% of the delegate vote (487 votes) to the 48.7% won by Carme Chacón (465 votes), with 2 blank and 1 invalid ballots.

Timetable

The key dates are listed below (all times are

CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

): *26 November: Official announcement of the congress. *8 January: Federal committee endorsement submission. *9–15 January: Election of congress delegates. *3–5 February: Federal congress.

Candidates

Declined

The individuals in this section were the subject of speculation about their possible candidacy, but publicly denied or recanted interest in running: File:Emiliano García-Page 2015b (cropped).jpg, File:Tomás Gómez (2012) (cropped).jpg, File:Eduardo Madina 2014 (cropped).jpg, File:José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero 2011c (cropped).jpg, * Emiliano García-Page (age ) —

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

appointed by the

Assembly of Madrid The Assembly of Madrid or Madrid Assembly () is the Unicameralism, unicameral autonomous legislature of the Autonomous Community of Madrid since the approval of the Madrid Charter of Autonomy in 1983. It is elected every four years during the S ...

; Spokesperson of the Socialist Group in the Assembly of Madrid ; Member of the Assembly of Madrid ; Secretary-General of the PSM–PSOE ; Mayor of Parla ; City Councillor of Parla . * Eduardo Madina (age ) — Secretary-General of the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Congress ; Member of the PSOE Executive Commission ;

Member of the Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has 350 members elected from fifty-two constituencie ...

for

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

; City Councillor of Sestao . *

(age ) — Secretary-General of the PSOE ;

;

for

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

; President ''pro tempore'' of the Council of the European Union ; Leader of the Opposition of Spain ;

for León ; Member of the PSOE Executive Commission ; Secretary-General of the PSOE in the province of León .

Endorsements

Candidates seeking to run were required to collect the endorsements of at least 10% of federal committee members and of between 20% and 30% of congress delegates.

Opinion polls

Poll results are listed in the tables below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first, and using the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. If such date is unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the candidate's colour. In the instance of a tie, the figures with the highest percentages are shaded. Polls show data gathered among PSOE voters/supporters as well as Spanish voters as a whole, but not among delegates, who were the ones ultimately entitled to vote in the congress election.

PSOE voters

Spanish voters

Delegate estimations

Results

Notes

References

;Opinion poll sources ;Other

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:PSOE congress, 2012 2012 conferences 2012 elections in Spain 2012 political party leadership elections February 2012 in Spain

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...