News, February 2008

Elections 2008

26th February. Elections will be held on 9th March and the campaign is under way. Last night the two presidential hopefuls, president Zapatero and oposition leader Rajoy, met in a face to face TV debate watched by 13 million. Rajoy was almost totally negative, scarcely giving a hint of future policies and being incapable of defending the more conservative 'family values' of the Partido Popular against the PSOE granting of 'rights' to gays, couples in need of a quick divorce or women facing unwanted pregnancies. Polls tend to give Zapatero the debate victory, but it appears that neither won a significant swing in voter intentions. See the BBC report.

The two leading parties are neck and neck in the general polls. President Zapatero, who won a surprise landslide in the 2004 general election in the wake of the 11th March train bombings in Madrid, now faces the electorate once more. As during the entire intervening period, the governing Socialists (PSOE) went into the precampaign season with a small advantage over the conservative opposition (PP). Main debates cover terrorism and the economy, with the Catholic Bishops having caused a rumpus with a circular to church members. Meanwhile, two pro-independence parties in the Basque Country have had links with ETA proven and were effectively closed down before the campaign. It is still a long time in politics, so no result can yet be certain.

On the same day, there will be regional elections in Andalusia, Spain's most populous region.

The evangelicals are in a quandry as to how to vote. Historically, if they were politically active at all, they tended to vote for the left of centre PSOE, which represented their own economic condition, but even more stood up to the overpowering influence of the Roman Catholic Church on the right wing. As a despised minority, they felt more comfortable with an uneasy coalition of other minorities.
Meanwhile, however, the PSOE has forced through many changes in the social area, including the status of marriage, rights for homosexuals, etc., pushing evangelicals much closer to the Catholics and PP, who hold the ground for traditional family values.
In these circumstances, it is hard to decide which way to vote. but abstention is less of an option than in the past, when evangelicals felt they had no voice. Now evangelicals in Spain are coming of age, politically. In addition, there are many more evangelicals than four years ago. This is mainly due to immigration, but electorally the migrants also have some clout since those coming from Spain's former colonies in Latin America can claim nationality after just three years. Many have done so and this year will be allowed to vote. EU citizens, however, are not allowed to vote in national or regional elections, but only in municipal ones.

On 1st February a row broke out over a 'pastoral' from the Catholic Bishops' Conference recommending the vote for parties with a good record on family values and which have never negotiated with terrorists. It is understood this means a recommendation to vote for the Partido Popular. Unfortunately, both major parties are considered to have begun talks with ETA over the question of whether it is willing to close down and stop the killing. Whatever the nuances, neither has gone any further than the other in this, leaving only the far left Izquierda Unida as an option on terrorism, but whose 'family values' are rather different to those of Rome!

Press coverage:

Read here a report from the Economist.

Information and graphics related to earlier elections are on our elections comment page.