Spain’s Socialists Win Re-Election

In yesterday’s general election, Spain’s Socialist Party increased its representation in the Cortes winning 169 seats in the lower house. That’s five better than last time, but it leaves the party six seats shy of an absolute majority. Meanwhile, the conservative Popular Party now has to face the fact that it lost an election on the merits of the campaign and not over a bombing in Madrid like in 2004.

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was known to PP supporters as the “accidental PM.” Three days before the 2004 election, Madrid’s subway was bombed by jihadis, and the PP government initially (and wrongly) blamed Basque terrorists. Many Spaniards saw this as an attempt by the government to manipulate an attack on the nation for political gain. It backfired badly, but the PP never really felt it “lost” the 2004 election. It definitely lost the 2008 balloting.

This time around, there was a political murder, socialist councilor Isaias Carrasco, who operated in the Basque country, was shot dead on Friday. It appears that Basque killers were involved, but no group has claimed the crime as its own. The killing shortened the campaigning in that part of Spain, but it appears to have had no other effect.

The reason that is so is the decline in importance of security issues. Or more accurately, the rise of other factors in voters’ minds. Inflation has hit a 10-year peak, and unemployment hasn’t been this high since the 1990s. The global credit crunch has snuffed out most of the housing boom.

The Socialists can claim that their liberalizing ways have been endorsed by the voters. Same sex marriage, gender equality laws and fast-track divorces have all been part of the first Zapatero government. One can expect more of the same, but that isn’t why the people re-elected the Socialists. The people picked the party they thought would best use government to put the economy back on track, something conservatives don’t like to consider.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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