2016 PSOE crisis

Pedro Sánchez and Susana Díaz's long-standing antagonism erupted with force after the 2015 general election, culminating in a party revolt on 28 September. At the 2017 PSOE congress Pedro Sánchez was backed by PSOE activists with a supermajority.

The 2016 PSOE crisis was a political conflict within the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), starting on 26 September 2016. Long-standing discontent with party Secretary General Pedro Sánchez and the combination of a series of circumstances resulted in a party revolt to force Sánchez's dismissal on 28 September,^[1] in an episode lasting until 1 October colloquially dubbed by some media and journalists as the "war of the roses".^[2][3] The ensuing power vacuum and Sánchez's replacement by an interim managing committee, coupled with the party's turn to allow a PP minority government after a 10-month deadlock on government formation and the resulting worsening of relations with its sister party in Catalonia, the PSC, triggered a crisis of a scale unprecedented in the party's 137 years of existence.^[4]

Andalusian President Susana Díaz had been long considered the most prominent critic of Pedro 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 importance. Ever since Sánchez's election as Secretary General—helped by Díaz's own manoeuvres to hold off Eduardo Madina—both leaders had developed an increasing distrust and rivalry between the two of them for the party's leadership and political strategy.^[5][6]

After the 20 December 2015 and 26 June 2016 general elections had resulted in the worst electoral results for the PSOE in 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.^[7][8] The immediate trigger to the crisis was the poor PSOE showing in the Basque and Galician elections, which led critics to call for Sánchez's resignation.^[9] Sánchez held out, and responded by announcing a party primary and congress for October–December, 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, to trigger Sánchez's removal and take command themselves. Sánchez, instead, refused to step down and entrenched himself within the party's headquarters, generating the largest crisis in the party's history, as neither side acknowledged the legitimacy of the other to act in the party's name.^[10] This situation ended when Sánchez resigned after losing a key ballot in the party's federal committee on 1 October,^[11] being replaced by a caretaker committee and leaving behind a shattered PSOE.^[12]

Some predicted that this set of events was to help pave the way for the party to abstain in a hypothetical Rajoy's investiture,^[13] 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.^[14] PSC leader Miquel Iceta announced his party—associated to PSOE since 1978—would not abide by the committee's decision and would break party discipline by voting against Rajoy nonetheless,^[15] with PSOE leaders warning that failure to comply with the committee's decision would result in a "review of their relationship", implying that the schism could lead to a break up between both parties.