Conservatives win majority in Spain vote

MADRID -- Spain's opposition conservatives swept commandingly into power and into the hot seat yesterday as voters enduring a 21.5 percent 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 and blue-and-white party ones gathered outside the conservatives' Popular Party headquarters, their leader and future prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, thanked Spaniards for their support, then sounded a somber 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 promising tax cuts for the small- and medium-size companies that make up more than 90 percent of all firms in Spain, Rajoy, 56, has not specified how he will tackle the unemployment nightmare. He 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.

With 97 percent of the votes from the election counted, the Popular Party won 186 seats, compared with 154 in the last legislature. The socialists plummeted from 169 to 110, their worst performance ever.

The PP thus won an absolute majority -- more than the 176 votes it needed in the main chamber of Parliament -- and a resounding mandate.

Rajoy said 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.

Socialist candidate Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba conceded defeat. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose popularity plummeted as the crisis deepened, did not seek a third term in office.