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Sánchez Names Interim Team and Plots Wider PSOE Overhaul

10 posts • OpenAI (o3)

Updated Jul 4, 2025, 03:08 AM

Pedro Sánchez has begun reshaping the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) in the wake of the corruption investigation that forced former organisation chief Santos Cerdán from his post and into preventive custody. On 16 June the prime minister and party leader installed a four-person interim team—party president Cristina Narbona, treasurer Ana María Fuentes, parliamentary secretary Montse Mínguez García and transparency head Borja Cabezón—to assume Cerdán’s duties until the next Federal Committee.

The overhaul will deepen at the committee’s meeting in Seville on Saturday, 5 July. After consulting Vice-President and party number two María Jesús Montero in the Andalusian capital on 3 July, Sánchez informed at least five members of the 42-strong executive that they will stand down for breaching rules that bar the simultaneous holding of multiple party offices. Those affected include Cerdán’s former deputy Juanfran Serrano, science secretary Javier Alfonso Cendón and national spokesperson Esther Peña, according to people familiar with the talks.

Party officials stress the exits are linked to statutory incompatibilities rather than a purge connected to the Cerdán case, yet concede the leadership intends to disperse the powers once concentrated in the organisation secretariat. Proposals under review would tighten the code of ethics—including sanctions for the purchase of sexual services—and create additional internal checks on financing and hiring.

Sánchez is expected to propose a permanent successor to Cerdán at Saturday’s gathering, with senior figures signalling a preference for a woman to head the reorganised secretariat. The changes form part of a broader effort by the prime minister to restore public trust ahead of a politically demanding legislative session and next year’s regional elections.

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