Spanish election too close to call

The Courier-Mail (Australia) ^ | 3/14/03 | various correspondents

[expatpat]

Assuming neither wins a majority, what are the prospects for coalitions?

[oolatec]

This is exactly what Al Qaeda is going to try to do... everyone that joined the fight against them will be a target during national elections. They (the terrorists) are attempting to change rulers through their attacks, with the hope the newly elected governments go soft on them.

I predict we will see an attack in the US in November... unfortunately...

[dogbyte12]

Good question. What are the other parties here? Is there an equivalent of the Liberal Democrat Party in England which is kind of in the middle?

[Arkinsaw]

And it may be an effective tactic to use against sedentary politically correct peoples.

[thoughtomator]

pinging someone who might know

[squidly]

At least the Spanish lefties are honest enough to call themselves the Socialist Party.

[raloxk]

If the socialists win, the most likely next target would be Italy. The terrorists are trying to defeat the USA and its allies by picking off one by one the weakest allies with the weakest public opinion. I doubt there will be an attack on the US or UK, but Italy would likey be next.

[traumer]

Sounds like Florida....

Dom they have a similar province?

[Stagerite]

The communists, socialists, leftists, and democrats are allies to terrorists; and they know it.

[thoughtomator]

Sigh... Exit polls: Spanish conservatives punished in election, Socialists post big gains

Keep cool though.. this is biased San Fran reporting obviously, and the exit polls are not the real ones.

[MEG33]

First exit poll news.

[dogbyte12]

I am going to Spanish websites... The consensus seems to be that the Socialists will probably take about 156 or so, and the ruling party around 154. It's basically a draw. This is all going to be about third parties and coalitions. Both could win, depending on who they can get to come on board.

I hope the minor parties aren't total nutjobs. It could be the Greens and the Reform party equivalents for all we know.

[FairOpinion]

But what is the matter with those people -- they are blaming the US, but not the terrorists?

Do they plan to do everything the terrorists want for the rest of their lives, however short that may be?

This is allowing them to let the terrorists blackmail them, and allowing the terrorists to set Spain's foreign and domestic agenda.

Have they gone mad?!

[oceanperch]

That's right they enter the exits.

With the exception to the few who don't.

[Gringo1]

Exactly!

Al-Queda cannot beat the coalition countries by force, so they are trying to install more terrorist-friendly governments by using the instruments of democracy against us to elect mamby-pamby pacifists and anti-american governments in place of strong,pro-american ones.

I too feel we will see an attack here in Late Oct-Early Nov. to try to sway the election towards Kerry as well.

This of course will make Kerry the official Al-Queda candidate.

[glasseye]

This of course will make Kerry the official Al-Queda candidate

You mean he's not already?

[Bombard]

Your problem is that you believe that the people that the media shows us who are blaiming the USA represent the bulk of the Spanish people.Since when do any of use trust what the media tells or shows us. Take this all with a grain of salt. Polls showed that the Spainish election would be close. This was do to many internal factors and not do to one event only. If the ruling party was slated to when big and then because of the attacks lost then that would be a bug deal. Chill out, things are never as bad as the media makes them out to be.

[thoughtomator]

I think the best result would be one that closely reflects the polling before the bombings - it would show that the bombings had no net effect on the election, which would discourage any party from using bombings for that purpose.

[Former Fetus]

I'm afraid the PP is the "kind of in the middle" party. As for what other parties there are... well this time I haven't bothered to go to the Post Office to pick up the certified mail with the ballots (I've been an American citizen for 4 years but they still don't get it in Madrid), but last time I counted over 40 parties for general and local elections. It's a real circus.