The president of the Badajoz Provincial Council, Miguel Ángel Gallardo, won the PSOE primaries of Extremadura this Saturday by obtaining 55.71% of the votes and will replace Guillermo Fernández Vara as head of the party.
A total of 9,644 people - 9,024 militants, 501 from Socialist Youth and 119 direct members - were called to participate in this voting day, in which there was a participation of 77.49%, ten points more than in the 1997 primaries. .
Gallardo has prevailed over the first vice president of the Assembly and regional vice secretary of the party, Lara Garlito, by adding 4,089 votes (55.71%), while she has obtained 43.34% (3,181), with one hundred percent scrutinized.
The mayor of Villanueva de la Serena (Badajoz) has also received the most votes in his province, with 69.49% (3,241 votes), and Garlito in his province, in Cáceres, with 67.75% (1,183 ).
That is, Gallardo has obtained more votes in the province of Badajoz than Garlito has in all of Extremadura.
After the results were made public, the two candidates appeared together hugging and smiling, and Gallardo, now without his rival, was received by many militants shouting "president, president!"
In his speech, Gallardo highlighted Garlito's "bravery" and that this process has "encouraged" the militancy to regain the trust of citizens lost due to some errors committed during the years of government and win again in Extremadura.
The primaries have been an exercise in "transparency and honesty", something that only the PSOE can do in Spain, and after confronting two models, only that of the PSOE remains, he stated.
Gallardo, who highlighted the high participation in the vote, stressed that the two teams now take off the "t-shirt" of each candidate and put on only that of the PSOE.
He has advocated working for a strong regional project, a responsibility that he assumes "happily", although his backpack is already "heavy", and he has been convinced that Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra and Guillermo Fernández Vara are going to feel "proud" of this PSOE.
Finally, he has shown his commitment so that the government of "lies" and "deception" of the PP and Vox goes down in history in the 2027 regional elections.
Gallardo will be definitively proclaimed general secretary at the Extraordinary Regional Congress scheduled for March 22 and 23, which will open a new stage after 15 years of leadership by Fernández Vara.
For his part, Garlito has assured that it has been a "clean campaign" and that "the PSOE always wins."
The Secretary of Organization, Marisol Mateos, has highlighted the normality with which the voting has been carried out in the 193 authorized centers, a day that she has described as "exemplary" and "exemplary" from the point of view of the organization and the militancy.
Mateos, who has highlighted the transparency of the process, has highlighted that the militancy has voted in a "mature and responsible" way, and in this sense he has highlighted the participation figure, ten points higher than in the 1997 primaries in which he won. Fernandez Vara.
After these primaries and the congress, the PSOE of Extremadura will emerge "more united, stronger and committed", he assured.
