Ex-PSOE leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba 'critical' after stroke

The one-time deputy president of Spain was rushed from his home to hospital and into theatre at 19.15 last night.

Surgeons managed to break up and disperse the blood clot causing the stroke and he was placed under observation in intensive care.

Medical staff say Rubalcaba, 67, spent a 'comfortable night', but that his condition remains 'critical'.

Messages of support have flooded in from all quarters, especially from current socialist leader and national president Pedro Sánchez, who tweeted his best wishes from Romania where he had travelled early this morning for a European Union summit.

Sánchez says he hopes Rubalcaba recovers fast so that he can once again see the patient 'active, doing politics and being an inspiration to everyone'.

Rubalcaba was in opposition for nearly three years after the right-wing PP gained power in November 2011, after being handed the reins to the PSOE by then president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero ahead of the general elections that month.

The PSOE lost when the PP gained a landslide victory, but Rubalcaba continued to front the socialists and led them through the European Parliamentary elections in May 2014.

Both the PP and the PSOE gained a similar number of seats, the former slightly more, but Rubalcaba was so disappointed with his party's results that he took the blame and stood down.

Pedro Sánchez was voted its new leader and, after a rollercoaster career, finally secured the presidency in June last year through a no-confidence vote against the PP.

Sánchez reaffirmed his mandate in the general elections on April 28 this year, but with a 123-seat minority out of 351, meaning he is now in talks with left-wing Podemos to either form a coalition or gain Spain's fourth-largest political force's backing to be sworn in as president again.

Rubalcaba has remained a member of the PSOE and closely followed its progress since his resignation as its leader.