Socialists claim victory in Spain

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/09/spain.election/index.html?eref=time_world

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Moments after his challenger conceded, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero thanked a crowd of cheering supporters for Sunday's win by his Socialists in Spain's parliamentary elections.

Spainish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero waves to supporters after voting in Madrid on Sunday.

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"Thanks to all the citizens who have participated," Zapatero said. "And thanks from my heart to the citizens who have, with their votes, given a clear victory to the Socialist Party."

With 89 percent of the vote tallied, Zapatero's Socialists had 44 percent of the vote, followed by Mariano Rajoy's conservative Partido Popular with 40 percent. Sunday's turnout was put at 75.4 percent late in the day.

"We have worked hard, and it's been worth the trouble," Zapatero said.

Zapatero has ruled with a plurality since 2004, when he and Rajoy first faced each other in a general election. At the Socialist Party's headquarters, a number of police vans had shown up in apparent anticipation of large crowds.

At the PP headquarters, the mood was somber among the several hundred people who showed up outside the building. Campaign Chief Pio Garcia Escudero said he would wait for the votes to be counted.

As of 6 p.m. Sunday, turnout was running 2 percentage points below the turnout of 2004. That year, overall turnout was 75 percent.

This year, Zapatero appears to have overcome concern about a faltering economy and the death on Friday of a former Socialist town councilman, who was killed in an attack in northern Spain which was blamed on Basque separatist group ETA. Watch a voter describe 'going backwards' economically »

The election four years ago, held in the wake of the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, gave Zapatero's Socialists an upset victory. Zapatero's first decision upon taking office in 2004 was to pull Spain's troops out of Iraq.

Zapatero has put Spain in the vanguard of European social policy, legalizing gay marriage and making divorces easier to obtain. Roman Catholics staged a mass demonstration in Madrid last December to blast the government policies.