A parliamentary delegation of PSOE headed by Elena Valenciano, secretary of International Relations, visited Washington in June 17-20 to strengthen the relations of PSOE with the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Socialist representative met with the campaign teams of the candidates of the U.S. election, Barack Obama and John McCain.

On the Democratic team, Valenciano had meetings with Dennis McDonough and Gilberto Ocaña, foreign policy advisers for the Obama campaign. In the Republican team, the socialist leader had a working meeting with Randy Scheunemann, foreign policy adviser for the McCain campaign. She also met with the President of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean.

Dean was the Democratic leader who agreed with the secretary of Organization of PSOE, Jose Blanco, when they met in Washington in the summer of 2006, for to launching of an initiative called ETP (Espacio Transatlantico de Progreso). It’s an initiative that aims to strengthen the relations between the Democratic Party and all European progressive parties.

The agenda was completed with meetings with analysts and political advisers such as Norman Birnbaum, Daniel Restrepo, Moises Naim and Cornard Martin, and meetings with heads of political organizations such as the Economic Policy Institute, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Campaign for America's Future (which works in areas such as environment, energy, health care reform, social security and education) and Americas's Voice (dedicated to the integration of immigrants).

Elena Valenciano also set the ground for the incoming visit of a Socialist delegation (headed by the secretary of Organization, Jose Blanco) to attend the Democratic National Convention being held in Denver in August 25-28.