Spain Socialists Face Suddenly Tough Election

Vote next month will be world's first big test of credit crunch fallout
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 25, 2008 6:16 PM CST
Spain Socialists Face Suddenly Tough Election
Manuel Pizarro, potential finance minister in a PP government   (Associated Press)

The Socialist Zapatero government is facing an unexpected hitch in its re-election plans: a downtrodden Spanish economy. The vote March 9 is the first in a big nation in the wake of the world credit crunch, the Economist reports, and it will test the political fallout of a burst housing bubble. The PM’s party is slowly dropping in the polls and now leads the opposition People's Party by only 2 percentage points.

A former strong point for Zapatero—six months back, the economy was growing at 3.8%—finances are now on every Spaniard’s mind, polls show, and there's plenty of buzz about a potential debate between the finance chief and a financial honcho hired by PP. But the conservative PP has snubbed the political center—and its foot-dragging on global warming and other issues may keep the economy from tipping the electoral scales. (More Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero stories.)

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