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carlos fromspain said:
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I'm VERY disappointed, for one, because like you said, a terrorist attack by AlQaeda should not decide who is in power here and people should vote with their brains, not feelings. And second, because the socialist party who won will not support the US like the outgoing popular party and thay have no clue about macro-economics, so much for the fastest growing economy in the last decade of the European Union.



Carlos,

You are not alone at being surprised by the outcome of the Spanish elections. But as we discussed before elsewhere, it really is impossible to put the outcome down to any one issue. No doubt the attack had an effect but what was that effect? As we already know, Spain's participation in Iraq was deeply at odds with the Spanish public's wishes (though we've argued about the extent of this public disapproval). So would it be surprising that the public voted against the outgoing government on this issue?

Personally, I am very pleased to hear this new Spanish criticism of the Iraqi situation and particularly the very undiplomatically criticism of Blair and Bush.

On the economy, if you are correct that the socialists will damage Spain's economy, and that Iraq was one a significant reason that the current government lost, then it follows that the current government's decision to support the USA on Iraq has just resulted in the socialist's victory and has cost Spain its economy -- something that clearly is at odds with the best interests of the Spanish people.

Stephen

p.s. BBC is reporting now that the vote was a punishment vote for the People's Party for their swift blame of the attacks on ETA without any real evidence -- i.e. a suspicion that the government was lying to the public on the issue.