MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Opposition Socialists win in Spain

The Spanish government acknowledged the opposition Socialist Party's unexpected victory in the general election on Sunday. The new Spanish president is José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero but he will not have a majority in the 350 member parliament: his party managed 164 seats and outgoing president Jose Aznar 148. The remaining seats correspond to minor parties.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes officially announced at a press conference that the PSOE, led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, had won and said that he wanted to "most sincerely congratulate the Socialist Party," adding that the outgoing government "is going to collaborate in this transition period".

Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy together with President Jose Maria Aznar also congratulated Zapatero saying that the PP would act as a "loyal opposition", emphasizing that the country's "national priority" must continue to be "the defeat of terrorism".

PSOE held a substantial lead in the Spanish general elections with 93.48 percent of the ballots counted Sunday night, garnering 42.83 percent of the vote to the governing Popular Party's 37.64 percent. Spanish voters turned out massively with over 77% of the eligible voters casting ballots, compared to almost 69% in the 2000 election.

The ruling party has governed since 2000 with an absolute majority in parliament, 183 seats, while the PSOE has 125 seats, meaning it has increased its representation by almost a third, according to the latest results.

The third-most-voted party appeared to be the moderate Catalonian nationalist Convergence and Union (CiU) with some 3.26% of the preliminary vote count equivalent to 10 seats, while the independent Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) will control 8 seats - up from just 1 prior to Sunday's vote - having received 2.5% of the vote. A handful of minor regional parties will hold the rest of the seats. Among the other minor parties, the Nationalist Basque Party will have 7 seats, the United Left Coalition 5, the Canarian Coalition 3 and the Galician Nationalist Bloc 2. The Chunta Aragonesista, Eusko Alkartasuna and Nafarroa-BAI coalition will each have one seat.

The general election took place amid tight security in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks against Madrid commuter trains that killed 200 people and injured more than 1,500, many surviving in desperate conditions.

The results of the vote seem to indicate that Spanish voters intend to punish the ruling party for supporting the Iraq war - which was overwhelmingly opposed by public opinion -, as well as post-war efforts in Iraq, and also possibly for being so quick to blame the ETA terrorist separatist group for the deadly bombings. President Aznar has been a staunch ally of the United States in the run-up to war and its aftermath, and 11 soldiers from the 1,300-man Spanish troop contingent in Iraq have died.

Besides, the government initially was quick to push the whole blame of the carnage on the Basque separatist movement ETA an allegedly politically advantageous idea, (in spite of ETA' insistent denials), until the arrests of three Moroccans and two Indians with links to Al Qaeda forcing a different course of investigation. The latest intelligence data indicates that Spain was considered by Al Qaeda as the "softest" and "most politically vulnerable" target of the three main allies in Iraq, US, UK and Spain. In the wake of the bombings, more than 100,000 members of the security forces were deployed to protect the polling places.

Mr. Rajoy was to replace Mr. Aznar, who decided not to run for re-election after serving two terms. President Aznar, who is stepping down after eight years as premier, relied on a coalition during his first term before securing an outright majority in the 2000 elections.

However M 11, the worst terrorist attack in Spain's history seems to have changed completely the electoral scenario.