SPAIN: FINAL GALICIA VOTE--END OF AN ERA FOR PP, ANOTHER PSOE VICTORY

UNCLAS MADRID 002479 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV SP PSOE SUBJECT: SPAIN: FINAL GALICIA VOTE--END OF AN ERA FOR PP, ANOTHER PSOE VICTORY REF: A. MADRID 1628 ¶B. MADRID 2363 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: After a week of some suspense in Spain as emigrant votes came in and were counted, final results of the Galician regional elections confirm that PP,s grand old man, Manuel Fraga, has lost his position as regional governor after 16 years in power. This loss of a longtime PP stronghold represents a blow to the opposition Popular Party and its leader, Mariano Rajoy, who comes from Galicia. Pundits here point out that this marks the fourth election the PP has lost since the March 14, 2004 national vote, including the EU Parliamentarian elections in June, 2004, and the recent Basque regional elections. There was some talk earlier that Rajoy might be replaced as party leader if the PP lost Galicia; however, the current lack of an appropriate alternative PP candidate probably leaves Rajoy safe for the moment. Zapatero and his Socialist party will count this as another victory as they solidify their electoral support nationally and regionally. End Summary ¶2. (U) The emigrant votecount in Galicia has confirmed the election result reported in Ref B: the national opposition Popular Party (PP) has lost its majority in the Galician Parliament to the coalition of the Socialist PSdeG and Nationalist BNG parties. Because of the system of seat distribution in Galicia, it became clear in the week following the original election results that the PP would need about two-thirds of the emigrant vote in the province of Pontevedra to gain the one seat it needed to maintain an absolute majority in the Regional Parliament. In 2001, the party got more than 65% of the emigrant vote, a result it obviously hoped to repeat. This year, however, the PP received only 49.7% of the total, well short of what it needed. This compared to PSdeG's 43.7% and BNG's 4.1% of the emigrant ballots. Regional Socialist leader Emilio Perez Tourino will take over as President of the Galician Parliament from Manuel Fraga, who has held the office for the past 16 years. -------------- Ready to Sue... -------------- ¶3. (U) There was a moment of tension the afternoon of June 27 when the voting authorities in Pontevedra declared 4604 emigrant votes invalid, since they were stamped only with the date of their arrival at Barajas Airport in Madrid, rather than with the appropriate postmark from their country of origin. The PP made threats to take the matter to the courts, until they realized later in the evening that those votes would in any event not be sufficient to bring the party victory. -------------- Blow to the PP -------------- ¶4. (U) The result is the first victory for the left in Galicia's 24 years as an autonomous region. It solidifies the mandate of the national government under the Socialist Party (PSOE) and President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and strips the Popular Party of a key center-right stronghold. Galicia is the home of the PP's national president Mariano Rajoy, and of party founder and regional leader Manuel Fraga, who declared last night he would stay on as opposition leader, further delaying the question of PP leadership succession in Galicia. AGUIRRE