Spanish Socialists leading

Early results from Spain show the opposition Socialists leading Aznar's Popular Party:

Spain's Socialist Party unexpectedly won more votes than the ruling Popular Party in general elections, indicating that Thursday's terror attack cost the government votes, according to preliminary results based on 18 percent of the vote counted.

Neither party won enough seats in Spain's 350-seat congress to form a government without the support of other parties, the results from the Madrid-based Interior Ministry showed. The party with the most seats gets the first opportunity to try to win the support of other parties.

The Socialists won 43.6 percent of the vote and 163 seats, up from 125 in 2000. The Popular Party won 35.7 percent of the vote and 136 seats, down from an absolute majority of 183 in the last elections, the ministry said on its Web site. Convergence and Union, a Catalonian regional coalition, was the third most- voted party, winning 3.2 percent of the vote and 11 seats.

The elections were held three days after terrorist attacks in Madrid that killed at least 200 people and injured more than 1,400. Growing evidence of an al-Qaeda role in the attacks in revenge for Spain's support for the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq angered many in a country where more than 90 percent of the population opposed the war, boosting participation.

If the Spanish people have ousted their government because of a major terrorist attack, I really fear we'll see an attack on the scale of 9/11 in the United States before the Presidential election. If the people of the West are going to blame their leaders for terror instead of the people actually committing the attacks, why wouldn't Al-Qaida try it again?

Update: it looks like a victory for the Socialists. Iberian Notes says the terrorists got what they wanted.

I feel sick.

Posted by damian at March 14, 2004 05:46 PM