Madrid bombs tilt Spain left
2004-03-13 17:53
Madrid - Spain's governing rightwing Popular Party (PP) had hoped to go into Sunday elections on the strength of its economic record, but this week's bombings in Madrid have torn a gaping hole in its calculations.
Outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar will not stand in the poll which he hopes will be won by handpicked successor Mariano Rajoy, who has promised to chase "full employment" in a country whose jobless rate remains the highest in the eurozone.
After Thursday's carnage which killed 200 people, the state of the jobs market and three years of zero public sector deficits will count for very little.
Aznar's government was still insisting on Saturday it believed Basque separatist group ETA was responsible despite competing claims Islamic fundamentalists were to blame.
But whoever is responsible, the only issue engaging Spain's 34 million electorate will be which government can best deal with the aftermath of the four co-ordinated train bombings.
'Pleased with my country'
Ironically, Aznar only last week told El Mundo that he believed history would look kindly upon his eight years in power which have seen joblessness fall by half to around 11 percent.
"I am leaving the stage pleased with my country and honestly satisfied to be leaving it, I think, better off than I found it," Aznar wrote in a front page editorial alluding to the major recent strides that the country has made infrastructurally, funded, at least in part, by EU grants.
But, almost presciently in retrospect, he added: "Things can degenerate quicker than you think."
Those comments followed on from an interview to British daily The Times in which he opined that "ETA is weaker than ever, and I have no doubt about its final defeat."
Prior to Thursday the PP had looked unlikely, despite its economic record, to reproduce its performance of four years ago when it managed an absolute majority.
That achievement looked likely to prove its electoral high water mark as the party has consistently enjoyed only a slim lead over main rivals the Socialist Party (PSOE) in recent opinion polls.
One reason the Socialists had remained in the hunt was the foreign policy issue of Iraq, Aznar's support for the US-led intervention meeting with almost blanket popular rejection.Economic miracle
The other is the belief that the Spanish 'economic miracle' may either not last or that it is a mirage with around a third of young workers on short-term contracts.
Spain had been additionally worried about losing out amid the EU expansion eastwards as the labour force frets at increasing incidences of foreign firms switching production to newer, cheaper markets.
But now, on the eve of the election, another issue has come to the fore and is set to exclude everything else.
"This is all that matters now - this is a one-issue election," said Juan, a student among the 11 million people who took to the streets on Friday.