Popular Party Takes the Power Away from Ruling Party in Spain

After several days of intense street protests, the Spanish people gave their local power to the conservative Popular Party (PP), exceeding to the ruling Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) by nearly two million votes in the municipalities, with more than 90% of the vote counted.

The PP remained comfortably in the city councils of cities such as Madrid, Valencia, and they also won the mayor’s office in Sevilla, a historic stronghold of the PSOE. They temporarily impose in 13 of the 17 regions where elections were held.

With this result, conservatives become the favorites in the 2012 presidential election in which Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, will not attend a third term.

Catalan socialists can also lose the city of Barcelona, who has been ruled by them for 32 years, according to a survey of exit polls. Zapatero also acknowledged this defeat. He said these results had “a very clear relation with the economic crisis effects” that the country has been facing since three years ago and he said that “they assume and understand the punishment at the polls.”

Source: El Universo Newspaper