The conservatives won roughly 45% of the votes and the Socialists took 29%, according to official election results. In the last elections in 2008, the latter won by about four points.

From The Americano

Spain’s political center-right, Partido Popular (PP) led by Mariano Rajoy, won the Spanish election last Sunady in a crushing victory, with voters showing their dissatisfaction with the Socialist party.

It has swept commandingly into power and into the hot seat as voters enduring a 21.5% jobless rate and stagnant economy dumped the Socialists – the third time in as many weeks Europe’s debt crisis has claimed a government.

As thousands of jubilant, cheering supporters waving red-and-yellow Spanish flags gathered outside Popular Party headquarters, their leader and future prime minister Mariano Rajoy thanked Spaniards for their support, then sounded a note of warning.

“It is no secret to anyone that we are going to rule in the most delicate circumstances Spain has faced in 30 years,” he said. “For me, there will be no enemies but unemployment, the deficit, excessive debt, economic stagnation and anything else that keeps our country in these critical circumstances.”

Other than promise tax cuts for small- and medium-size companies that make up more than 90% of all firms in Spain, the 56-year-old Mr. Rajoy has not specified how he will tackle Spain’s unemployment nightmare.

Mr. Rajoy faces the towering task of restoring investor confidence and lowering Spain’s soaring borrowing costs with deficit-reducing measures, while not dragging an already moribund economy into a double-dip recession. It only just climbed out of one last year that was prompted by the bursting of a real estate bubble.

The Popular Party (PP) won 186 seats compared to 154 in the last legislature. The Socialists plummeted from 169 to 110, their worst performance ever.

The PP thus won an absolute majority and resounding mandate from a deeply troubled electorate. It needed 176 votes for such a cushion in the lower chamber of parliament, the main one.

Mr. Rajoy said he has not promised miracles and there will be none, but that the PP has shown in the past – it ruled from 1996 to 2004 and got Spain into the euro along the way – it gets things done. He appealed to Spaniards to join together and resurrect the economy.

“We stand before one of those crossroads that will determine the future of our country, not just in the next few years but for decades,” said Mr Rajoy, loser of the previous two elections.

The conservatives won roughly 45% of the votes and the Socialists took 29%, according to official election results. In the last elections in 2008, the latter won by about four points.

The Americano / Agencies

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