Spain's new center leader out to reunite his party

Landelino Lavilla, newly elected leader of Spain's governing centrists, the Christian Democrats, set out Wednesday to reunite his divided party in the face of a mounting Socialist challenge in general elections within in the next nine months.

Mr. Lavilla, replacing Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, won 144 votes from fellow members of the Union of the Democratic Center, a coalition of Christian and Social Democrats, liberals and conservatives.