OVER FOUR million voters – 10 per cent of the Spanish electorate – went to the polls in regional parliamentary elections in the Basque Country and Galicia on Sunday.
It was the first test of the popularity of the socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s since he was re-elected last year and the first since the country fell into recession and unemployment rocketed to historic highs of over 14 per cent.
In the event, the results were mixed. The Galician socialists (PSdeG), who have governed in coalition with the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) for the past four years, were defeated by the conservative Popular Party (PP) who gained an overall majority of 39 seats in the 75-seat parliament. It was a triumph for PP leader Mariano Rajoy, who has been under attack for his weak leadership.
This defeat was a bitter blow to the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and particularly José Blanco, PSOE’s number two, himself a Galician who had campaigned vigorously in the region. Emilio Pérez Tourino, the PSdeG secretary general, admitted responsibility for his weak government, and presented his resignation yesterday morning.
In the Basque Country, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), who have governed in the troubled region for almost 30 years, won the highest number of seats (30) but could lose their parliamentary majority and be forced to hand over the government to the Basque Socialists (PSE) if its leader Patxi López can reach an agreement with bitter rivals PP. PSE and PP combined would hold an absolute majority of 37 seats in the 75-seat Basque parliament.
But they will make uncomfortable bed-fellows with just one point of agreement – an opposition to PNV and other nationalist parties. The negotiations will be tough and drawn out. “I doubt if we will see a government until well into the spring,” warned the Basque journalist Gorka Landaburu yesterday.
These were the first elections without the radical separatist parties; some with close ties to Eta were banned by the Supreme Court over the past four years. The Ertzaintza, the Basque police force, detained five people for attempting to place ballot papers for one of these illegal parties in a polling station.
Their supporters described the banning as “anti-democratic” and complain they have been disenfranchised. They called on voters to abstain or spoil their ballot papers. Some people in smaller towns and villages said they had been threatened and were afraid to be seen entering polling stations.
Polling day dawned with a series of Molotov cocktails which caused no injuries but considerable damage to several banks and a court house in Amorebieta.
The Ertzaintza later announced the detention of Manex Castro Zabaleta, a 24-year-old Eta suspect. He is alleged to have taken part in an attack last January when terrorists planted booby-trapped explosive devices near a TV transmitting pylon. They also found a quantity of explosives, fuses and other bomb-making equipment in a house used by Mr Zabaleta in the nearby town of Hernani.