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Pedro Sanchez resigned as the leader of the Spanish Socialist Party on Saturday following a chaotic meeting of the party's Federal Committee.
The meeting only served to highlight the deep divisions between factions loyal him and to Susana Diaz, the leader of the party in Andalusia and the President of the Andalusian Regional Assembly.
Sanchez resigned after losing a vote taken on a show of hands over whether or not to hold a Party Congress in November.
He won 107 votes to 133 from those of the followers of Diaz, meaning the party will now probably allow the investiture of People's Party leader Mariano Rajoy as prime minister.
Saturday's meeting of the 253 Committee members came after the resignation of 17 members loyal to Diaz from the PSOE's 35-person Executive Committee on Wednesday.
Those resignations were aimed at forcing Sanchez to step down as leader, which he refused to do, calling Saturday's meeting instead in an attempt to gain support for trying to form a coalition government with left-wing party Podemos, as well as calling a party Congress to hold elections for party leader, in which he would be a candidate, and a new Executive Committee.
The meeting was chaotic and although it was scheduled to start at 9 a.m., but it had not started 8 hours later with one party member quoted in the Spanish press as saying delegates were "still arguing about what to argue about," and with tensions rising in the street outside the PSOE party headquarters, a police guard was called to protect the party HQ.
Sanchez loyalists then attempted to force a vote on whether or not a Congress should be held, provoking fury from the opposition, who in turn began collecting signatures to force a no-confidence vote on Sanchez.
A picture published on the website of the El Pais newspaper showed angry scenes with delegates on their feet pointing angry fingers at each other and nothing seems to sum up the situation more than the words of senior party member, Jose Antonio Tapis who left the meeting to tell waiting journalists that the PSOE was "broken."
In the end the decision on the Congress was taken by a show of hands and defeat sees the end of Sanchez, but the question now is: what now for the Socialists?
(APD)
