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Socialists win Spanish elections but fail to gain majority

10/03/2008

The governing Socialist party has won the Spanish elections but failed to secure an absolute parliamentary majority.

With 96 per cent of votes having been counted, the ruling party was projected to have won 169 of the 350 seats in the lower house of the Spanish parliament.

The main opposition, the Popular party, won 153 seats, while several of the smaller, left-wing parties lost ground.

The main Socialist party gained five seats from the previous election, while the Popular party also saw its returns increase by the same degree after many voters chose to return support that had been lost from 2004.

Basque separatist terrorists, who are frequently linked to the conservative political movement in Spain, had been blamed for the train bombing in Madrid on the eve of the last election, which affected their share of the vote four years ago.

However, some voters returned to the right-wing party amid fears of an economic slowdown and a rise in unemployment which dominated for much of the election campaign.

In his victory speech, prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he would "govern for all people, thinking first of those who have nothing".

In order to gain control of the executive, however, Zapatero must first make a deal with one of the smaller parties to implement a ruling coalition.

It is expected that the Convergencia i Unio part from Catalunia, which is predicted to win ten seats in the election, will be top of his list given its history of voting with the Socialist party on key polls during the previous term.