Spain bucks the trend

With a newish government in place the Spanish electorate did not follow the example of the other membet states. The PSOE (Socialist Party) led by the Prime Minister Zapatero gained 43.3 per cent of the vote against 41.3 per cent cast for the PP (Popular Party)

The Socialists won 25 seats, the Popular Party 23, 3 seats went to a coalition of nationalist Basque, Catalan and Galician parties, 2 to the Communist-Green coalition and 1 to another coalition, Europa de los Pueblos.

Turn-out was low, only 45.94 per cent, considerably lower than the 63 per cent of 1999.