- Title: SPAIN: OPPOSITION SOCIALIST PARTY CLAIMS VICTORY IN SPANISH GENERAL ELECTION
- Date: 14th March 2004
- Summary: (U7) (MADRID, SPAIN, MARCH 14, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF INSIDE SOCIALIST PARTY HEADQUARTERS AS VOTES BEING COUNTED 2. VARIOUS OF OUTSIDE SOCIALIST PARTY HEADQUARTERS AS VOTES BEING COUNTED 0.46 3. VARIOUS OF INSIDE PP HEADQUARTERS AS VOTES BEING COUNTED 4. VARIOUS OF OUTSIDE POPULAR PARTY HEADQUARTERS AS VOTES BEING COUNTED 1.56 5. SECURITY OUTSIDE POPULAR PARTY HEADQUARTERS 2.06 6. BALLOTS 7. VARIOUS OF COUNTING OF VOTES (9 SHOTS) 3.05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 29th March 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MADRID, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Reuters ID: LVAJWMP7NNKCM5PCW4AKH8XPEJ0
- Story Text: Socialist Party claims election victory.
Opposition Socialists claimed victory in Spain's
general election on Sunday (March 14) as voters apparently
punished the government over Madrid bombings that may have
been retaliation by al Qaeda for the Iraq war.
Official results showed the Socialists leading the
ruling centre-right Popular Party by 43 percent to 37.5
percent with 85 percent of votes counted.
Voters, many wearing the black ribbon symbols of
national grief since Thursday's (March 11) attack, turned
out in numbers well above the last election in 2000 amid an
angry debate over who was behind the bombings -- al Qaeda
or Basque separatists.
Analysts had warned the PP could be hit if voters
believed a purported al Qaeda video's claims that the group
had mounted its first attack in Europe and in reprisal for
Spain's support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq that most
Spaniards opposed.
Some Spaniards were vitriolic in accusing Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar of "manipulating" public opinion
by spending three days blaming the bombings of four packed
commuter trains on the Basque separatist group ETA, despite
its denials.
Aznar, retiring as prime minister and hailing a solid
economy and greater clout for a country restored to the
international mainstream three decades after Franco's
dictatorship ended, had taken a tough line against ETA.
Protesters shouted "Liar" and "Get our troops out of
Iraq" at PP candidate Mariano Rajoy when he voted.
The Socialists have pledged to withdraw Spain's 1,300
troops from Iraq if the U.N. does not take control by June
30 when Washington plans to hand power back to Iraqis.
Opinion polls showed as many as 90 percent of Spaniards
opposed the Iraq war.
Just hours before polling began, officials said the
purported al Qaeda video had been found in a waste bin on
the outskirts of Madrid and that three Moroccans and two
Indians had been arrested in connection with the attack.
In a high turnout, voters said they wanted to display
unity for democracy after the worst guerrilla attack in
Europe since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of a U.S. airliner
killed 270 people.
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