News, January 2008

Elections 2008

15th January. Parliament has been dissolved. Elections will be held on 9th March. President Zapatero, who won a surprise landslide in the 2004 general election in the wake of the 11th March train bombings in Madrid, now has to face the electorate once more. As during the entire intervening period, the governing Socialists (PSOE) go into the precampaign season with a small advantage over the conservative opposition (PP). It is still a long time in politics, so no result can yet be certain.

On the same day, there will be regional elections in Andalusia, Spain's most populous region.

The evangelicals are in a quandry as to how to vote. Historically, if they were politically active at all, they tended to vote for the left wing PSOE, which represented their own economic condition, but even more stood up to the overpowering influence of the Roman Catholic Church on the right wing. As a despised minority, they felt more comfortable with an uneasy coalition of other minorities.
Meanwhile, however, the PSOE has forced through many changes in the social area, including the status of marriage, rights for homosexuals, etc., pushing evangelicals much closer to the Catholics, who hold the ground for traditional family values.
In these circumstances, it is hard to decide which way to vote. but abstention is less of an option than in the past, when evangelicals felt they had no voice. Now evangelicals in Spain are coming of age, politically. In addition, there are many more evangelicals than four years ago. This is mainly due to immigration, but electorally the migrants also have some clout since those coming from Spain's former colonies in Latin America can claim nationality after just three years. Many have done so and this year will be allowed to vote. EU citizens, however, are not allowed to vote in national or regional elections, but only in municipal ones.