Zapatero celebrates a complicated victory in Spain
On 9 March, the socialist prime minister won another four year term in office, but his margin of alliances is limited with the rise of the right. A 75.3% participation rate quashed the nationalist pole, allowing for an English–style two-party system
It was an intense election campaign, thanks to the stark differences between the conservative, leftist and nationalists parties. The latter look likely to keep losing their power and influence in Spain, creating a de facto two-party system. Socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will benefit from this from now.
They may have lost, but Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party made progress too. This will provoke them to moderate their discourse and thus be able to come to state agreements with the socialists – matters including constitutional reform to limit decentralisation, electoral law and the fight against terrorism.
Zapatero keeps coming back stronger with his European plan as a model of leftist policy, without complexes in social policies and any anti-liberal talk in economics. But it’s more than likely that any action on a community level won’t increase, thanks to his will to focus on economic reform, something that a country suffering high unemployment still needs to stop relying on European funds from 2012.
Zapatero jumps for joy after his March 2008 election victory
Video: crystallero/ dailymotion)
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