Socialist prime
minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero won reelection
Sunday in a clear endorsement of a record of social change
including the legalization of gay marriage and
on-demand divorce, reforms once unthinkable in
overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Spain.
Zapatero also
shifted Spanish foreign policy by pulling troops from Iraq
in his first term, which he won three days after Islamic
militants killed 191 people in a string of bombings
against commuter trains.
Voters handed
Zapatero his second term despite worries about a slumping
economy, immigration, and resurgent Basque separatists,
blamed for gunning down a member of the prime
minister's party on Friday -- timing that recalled the
March 11, 2004, Madrid attacks.
With 99.4% of the
vote counted, Zapatero's Socialist party had 43.7%,
versus 40.1% for the conservative Popular Party, according
to the Interior Ministry.
In his next term,
Zapatero's main task will be to reboot the once booming
but now slowing economy, shaken by the sub-prime mortgage
crisis in the U.S. and a cooling construction sector.
''The Spanish
people have spoken clearly and decided to start a new
era,'' Zapatero told euphoric supporters outside the party's
headquarters in Madrid. ''I will govern with a firm
but open hand ... I will govern for all, but do so
thinking most of all of those in need.''
While Zapatero's
Socialist Party picked up seats in the lower house, it
fell short of a majority and will have to form some sort of
an alliance with smaller regional parties in order to
govern.
The opposition
conservatives conceded defeat but took solace from the
fact their party also picked up seats, with both parties
gaining at the expense of smaller leftist and regional
groups.
''I called the
candidate of the Socialist Party and wished him luck for
the good of Spain,'' conservative candidate Mariano Rajoy
told supporters in Madrid. A large crowd of
flag-waving supporters cheered loudly, making it
difficult for him to speak.
Zapatero paid
tribute to the slain politician, Isaias Carrasco, saying he
should have been celebrating the victory with his family.
Carrasco's killing, blamed on the Basque group ETA,
jolted Spaniards and prompted both parties to cancel
final campaign appearances.
Some in Spain had
predicted the killing might prompt a wave of sympathy
and a boost at the polls for Zapatero's party, especially
after the Socialist politician's 20-year-old daughter
Sandra made an emotional appeal Saturday for people to
defy ETA by turning out to vote en masse.
For Rajoy, his
rival in Sunday's vote and in 2004, it was the second
consecutive defeat, one likely to increase pressure on him
to step down as party chief.
''I thought Rajoy
would do better, he speaks with such conviction. I'm
surprised he fell behind,'' said Jose Eguren, a 29-year-old
security guard in the Basque city of Bilbao.
Many
conservatives consider Zapatero's 2004 victory a fluke, and
saw Sunday's vote as their chance to correct it. The
prime minister's victory was seen as finally giving
him a legitimacy that critics say he has lacked.
He won in 2004
amid a wave of voter outrage at the ruling conservatives,
who blamed the attacks on ETA even as evidence of Islamic
involvement mounted. The tactics were widely seen as a
bid to deflect perceptions that the killings were
al-Qaida's revenge for the government's deeply
unpopular support of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Sunday's results
showed the Socialists on their way to winning 169 seats
in the 350-seat lower house, up from the current 164 but shy
of the 176 seats needed for an outright majority. The
Popular Party was also shown picking up seats, raising
its total from 148 to 154.
Although he made
a dramatic entrance with the withdrawal of troops from
Iraq, Zapatero has since taken a back seat on the
international stage. Some say his reticence to make a
bigger impression has weakened Spain's standing
abroad. Others believe he may tend to foreign affairs with
more emphasis this time round.
The campaign was
marked by acrimony, with Rajoy hammering Zapatero on
everything from immigration to the economy.
In two televised
debates between the men, Rajoy used a form of the word
''liar'' to describe Zapatero more than 30 times; he blamed
Zapatero for not doing enough to spur the economy,
which is cooling amid rising unemployment and an end
to a boom in the construction sector.
Rajoy vowed to
make immigrants sign a contract obliging them to respect
Spanish customs and learn the language, a position
Zapatero's party called xenophobic. The candidates
also clashed on Zapatero's willingness to grant more
self-rule to Spain's semiautonomous regions. Conservatives
warn that will tear the nation apart.
Under the
Socialists Spain became the third country to legalize gay
marriage, and thousands of same-sex couples have wed since
the law took effect in July 2005, according to the
Justice Ministry.
The government
also pushed through laws including fast-track divorce and
easier terms for medically assisted fertilization.
All of these
issues have left Spain deeply polarized and these divisions
will not go away soon, said Enrique Monreal, 35, a
publishing company employee.
''It will take
several years for things to calm down. Right now it is so
tense, you are nervous even talking to your neighbor,''
Monreal said outside a polling station in Madrid.
(Paul Haven, AP)
