The Spanish version of Nick Robinson

Today is election day! Spain is ‘going to the urns’ (a phrase that harks back to the early days of democracy when voting slips were put into urns) to elect a new parliament and senate.

Since I’ve arrived the publicity has gradually been building, although I wouldn’t say that tension or excitement have ever been palpable. According to Spanish law, the campaigns cannot officially start until just two weeks before election day (or 9M as its fashionably portrayed in the press), prompting the BBC to describe it as a ‘sprint’ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7253662.stm) especially when compared to the marathon of the US process (as interesting as that is).

The current prime minister is José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero from the Socialist Workers’ Party who unexpectedly came into power four years ago. The challenger is Mariano Rajoy, leader of the conservative Popular Party who was defeated by Zapatero last time round.

Personally, I’m quite a fan of Zapatero and his manner of politics. I’m a sucker for a good rhetorician, which Zapatero undoubtedly has (his trademark being a Ciceronian-style three adjectives to describe one thing). He has also built a good brand around not only his name (he is known in the press as ‘ZP’, or ‘Zapatero Presidente’) but also his distinctive eyebrows which look like this: ^ ^.

The upshot of this is the following campaign video for Zapatero showing some of the great and good of Spanish music, TV, etc. as well as a number of people off the street, doing the ‘Zapatero’ symbol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yrLOyKPPKo

On the other side, Mariano Rajoy has a full-on beard which does his chances little good.

(Zapatero has invited the country to see the moustache of Aznar behind Rajoy’s beard. Aznar was the previous PP leader and is universally disliked here for his close relationship with George Bush which led to Spanish troops going to Irak. The first thing Zapatero was in office was to bring them back.)

As perhaps you can tell, I’ve been getting quite into the politics of it all over the last few weeks. Whatever the ultimate outcome is, it’s set up to be a close contest. The conservatives have promised to clamp down on immigration and the economy. The current government intend to carry on with their socialist policies in favour of women’s rights, continued education reform, etc.

Terrorism is also high on the agenda, especially given that ETA cut the campaigning short on Friday due to the murder of an ex-councillor in the Basque region of Spain.

For the first time in 15 years this campaign season has seen the Spanish people treated to two head-to-head TV debates between the two main candidates. Whether or not they will have excited them enough to vote today remains to be seen.

The day before the elections is known as the ‘Day of Reflection’. All campaigning is stopped and the public is invited to reflect on their voting decision. I spent the day chillaxing in Córdoba, more of which to follow in my next post. :)