News, March 2004

News Theme: general election, 14th March

On Sunday 14th March a general election was held. 34.5 million voters were called to the polls. Due to the significance of the event, comment is available on news items and in 2 items on the comment column: http://www.prayforspain.com/comment/index16.html and http://www.prayforspain.com/comment/index6.html . Full results are available from the news items. In a nutshell, the Socialists got a surprise victory. What follows is comment prior to the event, which continues to be of background interest.

The main parties contesting the election are the Partido Popular (conservatives, currently in government) and the Socialist PSOE. The current president (prime minister), José María Aznar, will not stand again and his replacement candidate is Mariano Rajoy. The socialist candidate is José Luís Rodriguez Zapatero. In addition to these parties, the outcome may be swayed by the seats obtained by minority parties, such as the left wing IU alliance or the regional parties of the larger and more independent-minded regions, particularly Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Many are the differences between the parties and the opinions for and against. This election is proving to be one of the bitterest contests since the advent of democracy in the late 1980s (Go Constitution).

The Spanish evangelicals tend to be drawn more to the PSOE than to the PP. Despite evangelicals in other parts of the world being regarded as amongst the most conservative, in Spain the conservatives represent a particularly hard line Catholicism and thus sympathise with limitations on the freedom of religion, or at least special privileges for the RC church. In addition, most evangelicals are not among the wealthiest who have benefitted most from the tax cuts which have kept the economy healthy through the recent years of recession in western lands. Thus, with one exception, they are mostly in favour of the PSOE positions on many policies. The exception, of course, is related to 'progressive' values, as the PSOE stands for relatively free abortion, is pro-homosexuals and so on. Pray as evangelical believers take their right to vote seriously and pray through the complex issues. Pray, also that evangelicals would get more involved in politics at all levels and thus begin to have more of a say in national political life. See below the cutting from AC Press

FEREDE Chairman calls on evangelicals to vote against government

Madrid, March 10th, 2004 (ACPress.net). In an unprecedented move which effectively burns its bridges with the current government, the outgoing Chairman of FEREDE - the official body set up by the state through which it negotiates issues of interest to evangelicals -has called on Christians to vote against the ruling Popular Party in this Sunday's general election.

Federico Aparisi, who will remain on the Board but not as Chairman, said evangelicals should vote for "those who respect our rights and liberty." The FEREDE represents nearly 2,000 evangelical groups in Spain, and in its latest report on the situation regarding religious freedom, is scathing in its denunciation of the present government. "Laws alone do not solve people's problems, but require the willingness on the part of the authorities to see they are correctly applied", said Aparisi, adding that "we have to make important changes...to our behaviour towards the state."

Aparisi accused the governing Popular Party of refusing evangelicals their basic rights, and of blackmailing them into silence over issues such as the proposed Protestant Faculty of Theology. He added that whatever party won the election, the FEREDE would fight for the application of the 1992 Accords, and let other European countries know what was really happening in Spain in the religious field.

Up to this point in his speech, Aparisi was merely rehearsing the FEREDE position of recent years, but then he went a stage further. Without actually mentioning the Popular Party by name, he said evangelicals ought to think seriously about using their vote - whatever their personal preference - in favour of those who defend Protestant interests. In a clear allusion to the party in power, Aparisi lamented the current state of affairs, and in a communiqué later, the FEREDE said it would send a letter to the European Parliament condemning "the alarming lack of religious neutrality in Spain."

There are apparently about 800,000 members of the electorate in Spain who call themselves Protestants.

Source & Editing: ACPress.net

More in the Special Reports: Election http://www.prayforspain.com/comment/index6.html and 3/11: coment:16

More about the government: http://www.prayforspain.com/general/index4.html