SPAIN:WITH NEARLY all the votes counted yesterday, it was confirmed that Socialist leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will be Spain's prime minister for a second four years.
The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) increased its support from 164 seats in the outgoing parliament to 169, with 43.6 per cent of the vote after Sunday's election.
Also celebrating increased support was the main conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) which rose from 148 seats to 154, with 40 per cent.
The parties spent the day analysing the results and considering their allies in the parliament.
Mr Zapatero, who came seven seats short of an absolute majority in the 350-seat lower house of the Cortes (parliament), will need the support of smaller and regional parties. He confirmed yesterday that he had received a call from Iñigo Urkullu, president of the moderate Basque Nationalist Party, offering his support. The Catalan CiU party, with 10 seats, is the third-largest and could hold the key to the stability of a socialist government. CiU leader Josep Duran i Lleida yesterday discounted reports that his group would join Mr Zapatero at present. But he refused to confirm what they would do in the longer term.
However, observers say it is unlikely Mr Zapatero will make a formal pact or coalition with the smaller parties. He would prefer to pick and choose his allies according to the issues.
Although the PP increased its number of seats, it had hoped to win. This is the second election lost under PP president Mariano Rajoy. The party secretary general, Angel Acebes, yesterday refused to comment on whether Mr Rajoy will be allowed to stand for a third term.
There are several candidates ready to jump in. Two likely aspirants are Esperanza Aguirre, the ambitious president of the Madrid autonomous government, and her arch-rival, Madrid's mayor, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. Their rivalry is so bitter that the mayor and president do not speak and only rarely appear in public together.
With both major parties increasing their majorities, several smaller regional and left-wing parties have lost support. The United Left was one of the principal losers. They lost 300,000 votes, falling from five seats in the outgoing parliament to only two.
United Left leader Gaspar Llamazares took the blame for what he described as a "total defeat" and announced he was stepping down as leader. He warned that Spain was fast becoming a two-party state.
The new government will not face an easy task. After many years of steady growth there are worrying signs that the economy is beginning to slow down.
Inflation and unemployment are rising and the construction boom, which brought so many jobs, is facing a crisis.