Rubalcaba to head Socialist Party until 2012 convention

Defeated Socialist Party (PSOE) prime-ministerial candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba will continue to head the formation until a new secretary general is decided upon at the opposition's convention in Seville on February 3, 4 and 5.

The proposal was put forward by PSOE deputy secretary general José Blanco on Monday at a party meeting in the absence of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who was waylaid by tasks of state, said Marcelino Iglesias, the PSOE speaker in the Senate.

There were no objections to Rubalcaba's continuance in the post, with PSOE members united in their belief that the former deputy prime minister is the right man to take on the task of the investiture debate.

In a separate development, public prosecutors in the Supreme Court on Monday indicated that they would open an investigation into accusations of influence-peddling and bribery against acting Public Works Minister Blanco.

The allegations were lodged by Jorge Dorribo, a Galician businessman who claims he paid commissions to Blanco and other politicians, including regional premier Alberto Núñez Feijóo, for help in obtaining public subsidies to expand his pharmaceutical business.

The Public Prosecutor's Office said that some of the information submitted by Dorribo was backed by SMS messages from his cellphone and those of José Antonio Orozco, a businessman friend of Blanco's, the minister's cousin, Manuel Bran, and Blanco himself.

Blanco said last week that he would be stepping back from the front line of the Socialist Party.