The winner of Spain's general election, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said yesterday he intended to withdraw Madrid's 1,300 troops from Iraq.
Zapatero told a Spanish radio station that no decision would be taken until he was in power and without wide political consultation. "But the Spanish troops in Iraq will come home," he added in his first post-election interview with Cadena SER radio.
Spain's opposition Socialists prepared for power yesterday after a sensational election upset sparked by anger over the government's handling of a suspected al-Qaeda attack on commuter trains that killed 200 people.
Voters ousted the center-right Popular Party (PP), which until Thursday's coordinated attacks had looked certain to win a third consecutive term in power in Sunday's poll.
Zapatero, 43, will be Spain's next prime minister. He has criticized outgoing premier Jose Maria Aznar's unswerving support for US foreign policy.
"Spain punishes the PP and places its confidence in Zapatero," said El Mundo newspaper yesterday's front page, slamming the government for attempting to play down evidence of al-Qaeda's involvement in the bombing of four commuter trains.
With US President George W. Bush facing re-election later this year, the unprecedented swing in the Spanish ballot may be closely watched internationally. It was the first time in Spain's modern democratic history that a party had lost power after holding an absolute majority.
With almost all votes counted, the Socialists had won 42.6 percent of the vote to the PP's 37.6 percent as voters turned out in large numbers to reaffirm their faith in democracy amid the upheaval over the bombings which also injured 1,500 people.
With 164 seats in the lower house of parliament, 12 short of those needed for an absolute majority, the Socialists will need to negotiate alliances with smaller regional parties or left-wing allies in order to govern.
But the PP will remain by far the largest single party in the upper house, or Senate, potentially making it difficult for a Socialist government to pass legislation.
The Socialists' surprise win sparked wild rejoicing among their supporters after eight years out of power. "It's like a dream .... Now things are going to change, and change for the better in every sense," said Carlos del Puerto, a 24-year-old mechanic.
Zapatero's first thought after winning was to remember those killed in Thursday's attack and to pledge his immediate priority would be "fighting terrorism."
"Right now, I am thinking about all the lives broken by terror on Thursday," he said, asking a crowd of excited supporters to respect a minute's silence.
Hours before polling began on Sunday, the government revealed it had a videotape, purportedly from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, saying it carried out the attacks in retaliation for Spain's support for the US-led war on Iraq.
Protesters shouted "Liar" and "Get our troops out of Iraq" at PP prime ministerial candidate Mariano Rajoy when he voted.
"The government has paid the price for its involvement in the war in Iraq, for Aznar's relationship with Bush and [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair. The vote has been a reaction to this," said Carlos Berzosa, rector of Madrid's Complutense University.
Also See Story:
A quiet man takes over in Madrid
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS