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MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party took a beating Sunday in an election in Andalusia that saw the far right win seats in one of the country’s regional parliaments for the first time in decades. The Socialists (PSOE) — which have ruled the southern region uninterrupted for 36 years — came in first but could lose their grip on power if parties on the right team up against them. Juanma Moreno — the local leader of the Popular Party — said as the results came in that he would try to replace the Socialists’ incumbent regional leader,...

Spanish voters on Sunday are expected to dismiss the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and usher in the conservative People's Party (PP) and its leader, Mariano Rajoy. Mr. Zapatero’s Socialist party (PSOE), which has been in power for eight years, has borne the brunt of public blame for Spain’s increasingly perilous economic situation, which has tainted the party’s leadership candidate, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. Meanwhile, Mr. Rajoy has been coasting toward an expected landslide victory without saying much about how he plans to reverse Spain’s economic course... The situation is bleak for the eurozone’s fourth-largest...

The centre-right European People's Party (EPP) is likely to keep its majority in the European Parliament in the June elections, as Europeans pick a safe pair of hands in the economic crisis over socialist "agit-prop," EPP secretary-general Antonio Lopez-Isturiz told the EUobserver. "The general feeling is that we can maintain a good score ahead of the Socialists. Not an absolute majority, but a majority like we have now, more or less," Mr Lopez-Isturiz said. He admitted the EPP would lose some of its seats "because in many countries we are in government, and that will have a negative impact." But...

As Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos lands in the Middle East to support a proposed Franco-Egyptian peace plan, a minor diplomatic row has broken out between Madrid and Tel Aviv over the presence of Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero at an anti-war protest over the weekend. On Saturday (10 January), Mr Zapatero addressed a demonstration in Ourense, Galicia, calling the Jewish state's actions "excessive" and saying: "It is my duty to call on Israel to implement an immediate cease-fire." The rally, as with others throughout the country, had been organised by NGOs, trade unions and the prime minister's own...

MADRID - Spain’s former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar drew criticism Wednesday by reportedly referring to what he called the "historic exoticism" of Barack Obama’s election as US president. Aznar was asked by a journalist from the Spanish edition of Vanity Fair magazine about the election in November of the first black president of the United States. "A historic exoticism and predictable economic disaster," replied the conservative former leader. "Obama is a person of black race who managed to become president of the United States, which is an extraordinary change for them", he said, without indicating whether he was referring...

The governor of the Bank of Spain on Sunday issued a bleak assessment of the economic crisis, warning that the world faced a "total" financial meltdown unseen since the Great Depression. "The lack of confidence is total," Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said in an interview with Spain's El Pais daily. "The inter-bank (lending) market is not functioning and this is generating vicious cycles: consumers are not consuming, businessmen are not taking on workers, investors are not investing and the banks are not lending. "There is an almost total paralysis from which no-one is escaping,"

Spain: the European Iran (The First Domino Falls) By Ignacio Russell Cano FrontPageMagazine.com | January 29, 2007 January 25, 2007 joins the annals of history as the first time a part of Europe adopted Ahmadinejad's customs officially. Those studying the transformation of Europe in Eurabia will surely see the case of Ciempozuelos (Madrid) as the first warning of the Islamification of Spain. However, the picture is slightly different. Ciempozuelos is a village near Madrid. Excluding punctual scandals – like the major’s recent resignation under charges of corruption – for the 12,768 inhabitants of Ciempozuelos, life is good – and progressive....

Spanish Jews knew there were hard times ahead. Prime Minister Zapatero has not disappointed them Keen on populist tirades against the United States "Dickhead Bush" and "Ketchup Queen Kerry", his whole campaign did not bring much attention until the moment Al-Qaeda decided to blow up Madrid trains, killing almost 200 people and bringing to an end Spain's membership of the West. From that moment on, everybody knew nothing would be the same, and Spanish Jews knew there were hard times ahead. Prime Minister Zapatero has not disappointed them. 'Understand Nazis' Although many experts had foretold of the imminent disappearing of...

When Our Allies Arm Our Adversaries: What to do when diplomacy fails The case of Spanish military sales to Venezuela By J. Michael Waller Annenberg Professor of International Communication The Institute of World Politics May 2, 2006 Introduction The United States must draw the line when its foreign military suppliers endanger US national security interests. This is especially true when foreign defense companies aid and abet regimes that subvert their democratic neighbors and align with state sponsors of terrorism. When political and diplomatic efforts fail to convince or dissuade, the last resort is Congress. Rather than enact new laws with...

The European Union's 25 foreign ministers decided on Monday to freeze aid to the Hamas Palestinian government and to suspend political contact with its members. However, the Spanish administration did not agree. A Spanish diplomatic representative said, "Humanitarian aid is not political, it involves people," and added, contrary to the EU agreement, "It is necessary to maintain contact with Hamas." Alberto Navarro, secretary of state for relations with the EU, said that Spain had defended the need for the EU to maintain its humanitarian and development aid, despite the freeze on direct EU financing for the Hamas government. He said...

If one word could be used to describe Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s nearly two years in office it would be “controversial.” Rising through the ranks of the country’s Socialist Party (PSOE), Zapatero -- affectionately known as Bambi for his bland demeanor -- won the Spanish presidential election in March 2004 shortly after the deadly terrorist bombings in Madrid. Since taking office, the young Spanish prime minister has promoted ambitious; some would say dangerous, social and foreign policy agendas. Indeed, a “New Europeanism” has taken hold in Madrid which promises to change the face of Spanish politics and...

Further military threats have been made against the Socialist Party (PSOE) government in Spain. Following Spanish General Mena’s threat to deploy the military to oppose the passing of a statute granting greater autonomy to Catalonia, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has attempted to downplay the incident as the actions of a maverick. But the British Financial Times reported that Captain González of the notorious Legionnaires has now published a letter attacking Zapatero and describing widespread hostility in the military to the Catalan Statute which he says threatens the unity of the Spanish “fatherland.” González threatened to march his troops...

Fernando Huarte Santamaría, a leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) in the northern city of Gijón, Asturias, contacted Algerian terrorist Benesmail Abdelkrim in the Villabona prison in 2001. Huarte even got Abdelkrim a furlough to go to the dentist and paid his bill; the two last met in October 2004. A few days later, the police arrested Abdelkrim and found the address of a well-known ETA terrorist in his pocket. Abdelkrim served time with two other notorious prisoners, Spaniard Antonio Toro Castro and Moroccan Rafá Zouhier, two police informants accused in the March 11, 2004 bombings. In April 1997...

(snip)...Any illusions that the PSOE would represent a radical shift to the left from the previous PP government in both foreign and domestic policy are being quickly disabused. The new Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso outlined the purpose of the new legislation: “We really need to improve the laws to control Islamic radicals. We need to get a legal situation in which we can control the Imams in small mosques. That is where Islamic fundamentalism which lead to certain actions is disseminated.”

<p>According to Izaronews.org, during last Monday morning some mobile phones have received the next message: "The German SPD informed PSOE -using Moratinos- that their intellinge services knew the operation 'Deathtrain' against Aznar. Send this. PSOE did know." Moratinos could be the next Spanish Foreign Affaires Minister.</p>

No one could have foretold in the immediate aftermath of the bombs that Spain would vote for appeasement Few election results are wholly unpredicted. Punditry is a trade that places a premium on being counter-cyclical. As soon as a consensus begins to emerge around a particular outcome, someone — often Mark Steyn — begins to forecast the opposite. If he is proved right, he can justifiably swank about it afterwards; and if not, no one much minds. But if any commentators foresaw that the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) would win last Sunday’s election, they kept very quiet about it. The...

CAIRO, Egypt - The Islamic militant group that claimed responsibility for last week's Madrid train bombings has called a truce with Spain to give the new government time to withdraw troops from Iraq (news - web sites), a London-based Arabic-language newspaper said Wednesday. The Al Hayat daily newspaper said it received a statement from the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, which earlier said it orchestrated the bombings to punish Spain for supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The blasts killed 201 people. But the United States believes the group, which takes its name in memory of al-Qaida's fallen No. 3,...

Is Al-Qaeda trying to knock off American-allied governments? The victory of Socialist PSOE in the parliamentary elections, and the subsequent announcement that its leader and President-elect José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will pull out the Spanish troops in Iraq may say so. I think AQ is planning to hit allied countries in electoral times, so their leftist groups can hold their governments responsible for the attacks on the tune they supported the US in Afghanistan and/or Iraq (this may not apply in Britain, since Tony Blair is an honest lefty). Could be Italy, Poland or Denmark next? Even Britain? AQ wants...

The Spanish People Imperil Entire Europe with Their Capitulation to Terrorism The Spanish people have chosen the path of capitulation to terrorism with today’s election. Their choice is shameful, if that can even be the word for it, and has now imperiled the entire of Europe as well as the rest of the world. They have chosen not to blame the criminal fanatics who have done this, but to blame their own government for this horrific terrorist act, and to blame those who resist terrorism. This is what they have proclaimed today, and this absurd and shameful proclamation while not...

NEW SPANISH GOVERNMENT The bombs in Madrid have cost the Spanish government its hold on power - they have conceded defeat to opposition Socialists in the general elections. The government of Jose Maria Aznar was judged on its response to the atrocity, in which 200 people died, and its support for the war in Iraq. Speaking after the victory, Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said his priority is to combat terrorism. Official results from Spain's general elections show the opposition Socialist Party leading the ruling Popular Party by 43.1% to 37.1%. The figures are based on results after 77%...