2012 PSOE federal party congress


The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party held its 38th federal congress in Seville from 3 to 5 February 2012, to renovate its governing bodies—including the post of secretary-general, which amounted to that of party leader—and establish the party platform and policy until the next congress.
The congress was called after the PSOE suffered its worst defeat since the Spanish transition to democracy in the general election held on 20 November 2011. Previous secretary-general José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero had announced in April the same year he would not stand for election to a third term as Prime Minister of Spain, 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, and former defence minister Carme Chacón. The ballot saw Rubalcaba win by a 51.0% of the delegate vote to the 48.7% won by Carme Chacón, with 2 blank and 1 invalid ballots.

Timetable

The key dates are listed below :
  • 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

Proclaimed

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Declined

The individuals in this section were the subject of speculation about their possible candidacy, but publicly denied or recanted interest in running:

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.