Socialists Elect ‘New Way’ Leader
The opposition Socialist Party elected a young politician who has been compared to Britain’s Tony Blair as their new leader, four months after a stinging electoral defeat. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a congressman from the northern Leon region who has been with the party since he was 19, must now form a leadership group, which will face a vote of approval from the party congress today in Madrid, the capital. Zapatero, 39, heads a so-called New Way group within the Socialist Party, and newspapers have drawn parallels with Blair, who overhauled the British Labor Party to win power in 1997.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
