Results seen as protest vote against Spain's Jos� Luis Rodr�guez Zapatero's handling of economy since 2008
The PSOE socialist party of Spanish prime minister Jos� Luis Rodr�guez Zapatero is licking its wounds after defeat by the conservative opposition People's party (PP) in municipal and regional elections.
In what was widely seen as a protest vote against Zapatero himself and his handling of Spain's economy, the party lost control of key city halls in places such as Barcelona and Seville while the PP took control of most of the country's powerful regional governments.
The central Castilla La Mancha region, Aragon and the Balearic islands all ejected Socialist administrations.
"We are aware of the situation that had distanced people from our party and caused them to criticise us with their vote or abstention," party spokesman Jos� Blanco said.
The Socialist drubbing came just 10 months before a general election and appeared to clear the way for PP leader Mariano Rajoy to take possession of the prime minister's Moncloa Palace residence on his third attempt.
The voting coincided with the eruption of numerous popular protests against established politics across Spain, with demonstrators camping out in Madrid's Puerta del Sol and in dozens of other cities.
A backdrop of 21% unemployment and sluggish growth has spread pessimism throughout Spain as the country struggles to find its feet after the global 2008 financial crash.
The Socialists lost one in five voters on Sunday, compared with the municipal elections of 2007. Not all those votes were picked up by other mainstream parties, however, and the number of spoilt ballots doubled. But overall turnout was a high 66%.
Zapatero is blamed by some for mismanaging a debt crisis that saw Spain on the edge of disaster last year. Others dislike the austerity measures he has since imposed in order to avoid a Portuguese- or Greek-style debacle in Spain.
His popularity has plunged since a U-turn last year forced him to bring in a strict deficit-cutting plan, which he has pledged to stick to, along with labour and pensions reforms.
Markets reacted nervously to the poll results on Monday, pushing up the price of Spanish bonds and pushing down Spanish share prices.
The PP urged Zapatero to call a snap general election. "Zapatero and the whole Socialist party must reflect on what has happened. Spain cannot waste another year like this," said the party's general secretary, Mar�a Dolores de Cospedal.
The one Socialist leader to have survived Sunday's debacle, the head of the Extramadura regional government, Guillermo Fern�ndez, also suggested an early general election might be considered.
Zapatero is not standing for re-election so the Socialists must first choose a new leader to take them into the 2012 poll, with deputy prime minister, Alfredo P�rez Rubalcaba, and the defence minister, Carme Chac�n, regarded as favourites.
Party officials said that a timetable for electing the new leader would be set on Saturday.
With a general election due in Portugal on 5 June, and with opinion polls showing that the socialist prime minister, Jos� S�crates, struggling to hang on to power, the rolling back of leftwing politics that has already taken place in northern Europe now appears to have moved south.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/23/zapatero-socialists-defeated-peoples-party
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