The
Retribution Has Begun:
Socialists Win In Spain
By Elizabeth
Nash
15 March 2004
The Independent
Spain's Socialists won a sensational victory
in yesterday's general elections, in a vote that confounded the polls
and inflicted a huge punishment on the Popular Party government for
supporting the war in Iraq.
Voters believed
that José Maria Aznar's support for President George Bush had
put Spain in the front line as a target for Islamist radicals, and directly
produced the devastating terrorist attacks in Madrid on Thursday. Additional
discontent was caused by the strong suspicion that Mr Aznar's government
was hiding information pointing to al-Qaida's possible involvement,
through fear that it would rebound against it in the poll.
José Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero, who will become Spain's new Prime Minister, won
43 per cent of the vote, which gives him 164 seats in the 350-seat chamber.
He can count on the support of other left-wing or regional parties,
enabling him to form a government without holding a majority of seats.
He said last night:
"Today Spaniards have spoken with a massive voice. They have said
they want a government of change. Thank you for this confidence."
One of the main
planks of Mr Zapatero's platform was his promise to bring home the 1,300
Spanish troops now serving with the coalition in Iraq. This is a position
supported by all the other parties in opposition to the Popular Party.
After acknowledging
his victory, Mr Zapatero called for a minute's silence, reflecting the
grief and shock that overwhelmed the nation after the bomb attacks.
"I think of all those lives broken by terror," he said. He
was flanked by the scarlet and gold Spanish flag, draped with the black
ribbon of mourning, and the starred blue EU flag, presenting an image
that elegantly marked a distance from the previous government's fervent
pro-Americanism.
The street outside
the Socialists' headquarters in Madrid was awash scarlet and white flags.
"Za-pa-tero Pre-si-dente!" ecstatic supporters chanted. Cars
drove around the capital with their horns honking in triumph until the
early hours.
Mr Zapatero was
conciliatory to his opponent, Mariano Rajoy, whom he described as a
"worthy rival". The incoming Prime Minister said that the
result was "a victory for us all".
Mr Rajoy was equally
well-mannered. "I've just called Mr Zapatero to congratulate him
on his victory. The results show he's won the confidence of the majority
of Spaniards, inexorably marked by the tragic consequence of the last
few days," said the People's Party leader. An ashen-faced Mr Aznar
was by his side.
The terror attacks
that killed 200 people and injured 1,500 in Madrid last Thursday produced
a dramatic mobilisation of the electorate. Turnout reached 74 per cent
9 percentage points more than in the last election in 2000, which
produced an absolute majority for the Popular Party.
The electorate was
swelled by some 2 million first-time voters. They are thought to have
flocked to the Socialist cause. In addition, Socialists who were widely
thought to have stayed at home last time came rolling back in their
determination to teach the government a lesson.
Last night's vote
is a crushing defeat for the combative and remote political style of
Mr Aznar, who had hoped to hand over power seamlessly to his handpicked
successor. Mr Aznar tried to wrench Spain away from its loyalty to Europe
and pledge it instead to the Atlantic alliance that took it to war,
and in the eyes of the voters to Thursday's tragedy.
The lesson will
not be lost on Tony Blair. Mr Blair has lost his most reliable pro-Bush
European ally. Now isolated in Europe but for the mercurial Italian
Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, Mr Blair must be contemplating the
prospect that his absolute majority may, like Mr Aznar's, melt away.
Mr Zapatero benefited
from the power of a socialist-led coalition in Catalonia, which was
elected last December. That coalition includes the pro-independence
Republican Left party, which won eight seats last night; previously
it had none. It seems that a secret meeting of its leader, Lluis Carod
Rovira, with Eta separatist leaders did the party no electoral harm.
When the meeting was revealed, in January, the Popular Party called
on Mr Carod, and the Catalan Socialist leader Pascual Maragall to resign,
and even threatened criminal proceedings against Mr Carod.
Mr Zapatero pledged
himself to be just as determined in the fight against terrorism as Mr
Aznar. He said he wanted the "maximum unity of all political forces
to pursue that struggle". His style was not triumphalist, not demagogic;
for someone renowned for his oratory, remarkably low key. He said he
wanted a "tranquil change" and promised, as if in an afterthought,
"that power will not change me".
British Muslims
are deserting Labour over war in Iraq, according to a new ICM poll for
The Guardian. The proportion of Muslims supporting Labour has fallen
from 75 per cent in 2001 to just 38 per cent today.
Eighty per cent
say they are opposed to the Iraq war, and while the majority (73 per
cent) are opposed to terrorist groups such as al-Qa'ida, around one
in eight (13 per cent) believe further attacks would be justified.