Forty former Socialist officials call for Pedro Sánchez's resignation and new party leader elections

The corruption scandals that have recently tarnished the left-wing and governing PSOE party are provoking the growing rejection of historic Socialist members. Nearly 40 prominent names have signed a letter to the party headquarters on Calle Ferraz to demand that PM Pedro Sánchez resign "immediately" as party secretary-general. In addition, they have called for elections to "safeguard the dignity" of PSOE's voters.

The letter includes signatures from major figures in the party's recent history, such as former ministers José Barrionuevo and Rafael Vera Fernández-Huidobro, César Antonio Molina, Javier Sáenz Cosculluela, Rafael Delgado Rojas, Nicolás Redondo, Eduardo Blanco, Eligio Hernández and José María Múgica. Javier Rojo and Juan José Laborda - both former Senate leaders - have also signed, as well as former party leader for the Basque Country Nicolás Redondo and José María Múgica Heras.

"We, the undersigned - people who have held public responsibilities under Socialist governments or the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and who maintain a firm commitment to its founding values - wish to express our deep concern at the serious deterioration caused by the ongoing scandals affecting the party's current leadership," reads the letter.

The signatories ask the current leader of the Socialists to step down and allow the election of a new secretary-general. They also denounce "the unjustified extension of the national budget, the repeated failure to fulfil electoral commitments, the deterioration of the rule of law, the occupation of state control bodies and the opaque negotiations on an amnesty law tailored to the demands of a fugitive from justice". In short, they are issuing a sweeping rejection of Sánchez's time at the Moncloa Palace (the seat of the Spanish government).