SPAIN YESTERDAY became the fifth euro zone country after Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Italy to change its government under the shadow of the crisis in the currency.
Mariano Rajoy, leader of the right-wing Partido Popular (PP), or People’s Party, won an expected and decisive absolute majority, the biggest his party has ever achieved, with 186 deputies in the 350-seat Spanish lower house.
The governing centre-left Socialist Party (PSOE), which conceded defeat, saw its representation collapse from 169 to 110 seats, its lowest-ever result. It has been punished for first failing to acknowledge the economic crisis, and then allowing unemployment to rise to 22 per cent, and more than twice that percentage among young people.
“The Spanish people have shown a huge desire for change,” PP secretary-general María Dolores de Cospedal said last night. She added the pleasure of the victory was inextricably linked to “an enormous sense of responsibility”.
The result comes after a week in which the bond markets resumed their assault on Spain, pushing rates to levels that came very close to triggering EU and European Central Bank intervention, days before the electorate went to the polls.
Despite the clear-cut outcome for a business-friendly party, the next few weeks are unlikely to see the markets immediately regain confidence in Spain. Procedural rules dictate that Mr Rajoy cannot take office before the third week in December.
The interim government, still under the leadership of the discredited José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has no power to take major decisions affecting the national interest in the meantime.
Despite the severity of the crisis, voter turnout was down 3 per cent on the 2008 elections, and almost 20 per cent on 2004, indicating a deepening alienation from politics that has found expression in the 15-M street protest movement.
There were also signs of a shift to the left as well as to the right, but in a much more minor way, with the former communists of Izquierda Unida rising from two seats to 11. But other protest options, like the new green group Equo, failed to make an impact.
Regional nationalist forces did well, with the Catalan coalition CiU increasing its representation from 10 to 16 deputies.
The most unexpected shift came in the Basque country, which voted for the first time yesterday without the threat of violence from the terrorist group ETA, which declared an end to its armed campaign last month.
After nine years in which radical parties associated with ETA have been banned, a new legal pro-independence coalition, Amaiur, performed better than any of its predecessors, becoming the largest group in the region with seven seats. It outperformed the PP, the PSOE, and the traditionally dominant moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).
Mr Rajoy (56) is an enigmatic figure who has played his cards very close to his chest during eight years in opposition. He has lived in the shadow of his predecessor, José María Aznar, a flamboyant figure of the right.
Mr Rajoy is thought to be closer to the centre, and Spain certainly needs a unifying figure to cope with the unprecedented crisis it is facing. “I want to be the prime minister of all the people,” he said last night as he acknowledged victory.
The election results give Mr Rajoy a new authority to stamp his own mark on his party and his government with the votes of 10 million Spaniards behind him – more parliamentary seats than Mr Aznar ever achieved.
Meanwhile, the PSOE faces a mammoth task of reconstruction. It has lost power in almost all its traditional fiefdoms, including Andalusia.
Its candidate for prime minister in the elections, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, is a throwback to the generation before Mr Zapatero and has utterly failed to inspire either party members or voters. A leadership battle is inevitable.