2012 PSOE federal party congress
| |||||||||||||||||
956 delegates in the Federal Congress Plurality of delegates needed to win | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | Secretary-General: 955 (99.9%) Executive: 899 (94.0%) | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 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 (487 votes) to the 48.7% won by Carme Chacón (465 votes), with 2 blank and 1 invalid ballots.