(CNN) — Spain’s right-wing Popular Party (PP) elected 37-year-old Pablo Casado Blanco as its new leader at an extraordinary party congress on Saturday.
Casado succeeds previous leader and former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, who resigned in June after losing a no-confidence vote in the Spanish Parliament.
Pedro Sánchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party took up the position of Prime Minister the day after Rajoy’s resignation.
Casado beat the former vice-prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría in the electoral contest.
He is considered to be the more conservative of the two candidates and his victory signals a move further to the right for the PP.
The PP has been plagued with corruption allegations for years. Rajoy faced the humiliation of testifying in cases against members of his party, though he was not among the accused.
The confidence motion was filed by Sanchez after a court convicted Rajoy’s former aides of running slush funds to help finance Popular Party election campaigns. The court also questioned the credibility of Rajoy’s testimony during the proceedings.
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