Miguel Ángel Gallardo, elected successor of Fernández Vara as head of the Extremaduran PSOE

Miguel Ángel Gallardo and Lara Garlito, the two candidates who competed in the PSOE primaries of Extremadura. Jero Morales (EFE)

Miguel Ángel Gallardo will be the third general secretary of the PSOE of Extremadura.

The president of the Badajoz Provincial Council for the last two terms and mayor of Villanueva de la Serena (25,750 inhabitants) has prevailed over the other candidate, Lara Garlito, with 56.2% of the votes compared to the support of 42.8% that the Cáceres leader and vice president of the Autonomous Assembly has obtained.

Gallardo, who has been a councilor since 2003 with absolute majorities, will be the third head of the socialists in the Extremadura federation after Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra and Guillermo Fernández Vara.

The winner has been the most voted in important cities such as Badajoz (233 supports, compared to 178 for Garlito) and also in his town, where he has had 221 votes in favor and only 6 against.

In Mérida or Almendralejo he has won with 70% of the votes.

Gallardo has thanked the support that the militancy has given him to win with more than 13 points against Garlito.

“Until tonight there have been two different models, but from today we are all the PSOE of Extremadura,” he stated, before emphasizing that from now on his objective will be to regain the trust of the people of Extremadura and recover the Junta of Extremadura. .

“From today I have a big backpack, which is to lead the PSOE of Extremadura and I am going to give my all to it,” Gallardo has committed, recognizing in his speech the legacy of Rodríguez Ibarra and Fernández Vara.

The new general secretary, 49 years old, has thanked his opponent for the courage and work done during the primaries and has highlighted that in Extremadura only the PSOE opens up to society as they have done.

“From now on it is time to all work together, to all put on the PSOE shirt,” Gallardo emphasized.

“We want a united and strong party, the important thing is that the PSOE wins,” remarked the candidate from Cáceres, ten years younger, who highlighted the high participation that has been registered in the process.

The organizational secretary of the Extremadura PSOE, Marisol Mateos, has stressed that the important thing about the process is that the PSOE comes out united, strong and with the aim of removing María Guardiola from the Extremadura Regional Government.

Mateos has reported that the participation has been 77.52%, 10 points higher than the elections that were held in 2017. From the PSOE of Extremadura they have highlighted "the absolute normality throughout the day, exemplary, exceptional and exemplary of the organization as a whole.”

The PSOE of Extremadura has experienced a historic day of voting, which began at ten in the morning in the different houses of the town.

In total there have been 9,601 socialist militants who were called to elect the new socialist leader, whose great challenge will be to recover the Junta of Extremadura, lost after the result of the 28-M elections last May: despite being the first strength, the PSOE did not add the necessary majority with Unidas Podemos.

The pact between the Popular Party and Vox took away the regional Executive, which Fernández Vara had recovered in 2015. The former president of Extremadura had been general secretary since 2008.

The next big event of the party will be on March 22 and 23, with the celebration in Mérida of the 14th Extraordinary Regional Congress for the election of the members of the new Regional Executive Commission, the Ethics Commission, the proportional part of the Federal Committee and the Regional elected by the autonomous party Congress.