Former Spanish deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, has won the primary elections for the leadership of Spain's Popular Party (PP), voted by party members across Spain on Thursday. With 21,513 votes, she pipped the former deputy secretary of the party, Pablo Casado (19,967), into second, while the other candidate considered among the front runners, former party general secretary, Maria Dolores de Cospedal, was third, with support from 15,090 party members.
The two most-voted candidates in the primary race, Sáenz de Santamaria and Casado, now go through to a final vote at the party congress on 20th and 21th July, where it will be party delegates who will finally choose the successor to Mariano Rajoy.
Santamaría finished ahead in Andalusia, Cantabria, Castile and Leon, Valencia, Basque Country, La Rioja and Melilla. Casado won in Aragon, the Balearic Islands, Madrid, Extremadura, Murcia and even Catalonia. Cospedal took Castella la Mancha, Galicia and Ceuta.
The leadership race was precipitated by the resignation of former Spanish prime minister Rajoy from the leadership of the party, after his government was defeated by a no-confidence vote moved by the PSOE's Pedro Sánchez in the Spanish congress.