Spain Campaigning Ends After Killing

By PAUL HAVEN
The Associated Press
Friday, March 7, 2008; 8:57 AM

MADRID, Spain -- Both of Spain's major political parties called off all election campaigning nationwide Friday after a former city councilman was shot dead in the Basque region.

The killing raised tensions two days before the general election, bringing an early end to rallies that were supposed to conclude at Friday midnight. There would be no resumption of campaigning before the election, the ruling Socialist party said.

The former councilman Isaias Carrasco was shot in the Basque town of Arrasate as he emerged from his home with his wife and daughter. He died after being rushed to a local hospital, Basque police told The Associated Press. Police said he was shot several times, and Spanish news agency EFE reported the shots were all to the back of his head.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MADRID, Spain (AP) _ The last time Spaniards voted in national elections, the trauma from the train bombings that left nearly 200 people dead was raw, the perpetrators at large and anger white-hot over suspicions the government was hiding evidence for political gain.

The result: A young Socialist opposition candidate named Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero surged from behind to win power with promises to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq and push through sweeping social changes in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.

Four years later, Zapatero has made good on those pledges and is hoping for a clearer mandate from Sunday's vote, a rematch against the man he beat so unexpectedly back in 2004.

Spain's once robust economy is softening and Zapatero's peace talks with Basque separatists have failed spectacularly, but the 47-year-old prime minister has never trailed in opinion polls and is widely favored to win a narrow victory over conservative candidate Mariano Rajoy.

A trio of recent polls shows Zapatero with a 4 percentage point lead.

Formal campaigning has been brief _ under Spanish law, it is limited to just two weeks _ but remarkably nasty.

During the candidates' first debate on Feb. 25, the two men used a version of the word 'liar' at least 17 times, according to an Associated Press review of the transcript. Their second debate included this exchange:

Rajoy: "You lied because you always lie. You never tell the truth."

Zapatero: "No, sir. No, no, no, no. Never."

Much of the enmity stems from the circumstances in which Zapatero won election back in 2004. Days before the vote, most polls showed Rajoy's Popular Party with a solid lead and Socialist insiders say even they did not expect to win.

But then came the horrific March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and injured 1,800, which the outgoing government of conservative Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar initially blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA.

Hours after the bombings, police found an audio tape of Quranic verses in a van outside a station through which the targeted trains had passed.

Two days later _ and just a day before the vote _ authorities found a video made by the perpetrators claiming they did it in allegiance to al-Qaida and in retaliation for Spain's support of the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Despite the mounting evidence, Aznar and Rajoy stuck to their hypothesis that ETA was behind the bombing. The government was apparently concerned that acknowledging Islamic involvement would underscore their support for the war in Iraq, which was deeply unpopular in Spain.

But the perception of a cover-up did more than that. Angry voters swung behind Zapatero, earning him a surprise victory. However, many conservatives still see his 2004 win as a fluke.

"It is certainly true that in the eyes of a significant proportion of Popular Party voters, Zapatero is tainted with illegitimacy because of the way he won the last elections," said Charles Powell, a history professor at Madrid's San Pablo CEU university.

Zapatero is hoping his re-election under more normal circumstance would put any questions of legitimacy to rest and prove the country is behind the breathtaking social and administrative changes he has enacted since taking office.

Zapatero's Socialists pushed through legislation that made it easier to get a divorce, legalized gay marriage, allowed transsexuals to seek government funding for sex change operations and scrapped plans for obligatory religious education at public schools.

Equally troublesome to conservatives has been his backing of expanded autonomy for independence-minded Spanish regions like Catalonia and the Basque country, which have gained greater control of their finances and other tools of self-rule, and liken themselves to nations within the Spanish state.

Conservatives warn this is the first step on a road that will lead to the breakup of Spain. They have also hit Zapatero hard on what they see as a soft immigration policy that has allowed millions of South Americans, Africans and Eastern Europeans to live and work here _ either legally or illegally _ taking jobs that might otherwise go to Spaniards.

But the real fireworks have been over Zapatero's failed peace talks with the Basque separatist group ETA. The opposition says the prime minister lied to the country by continuing to have indirect contact with the militant group even after it shattered a cease-fire with a deadly Dec. 30, 2006, bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport.

Zapatero has countered that the Popular Party has broken a cardinal rule of Spanish democracy by politicizing terrorism.

Neither candidate has laid out an extensive vision of where they will take the country over the next four years, or how they will deal with a global economic slowdown that has already started to sink Spain's once-soaring property market and reverse the dramatic job gains of recent years.

And despite the evident bad blood between the two men, Rajoy has given no indication he would roll back most of the social changes enacted by the Socialists in recent years.

Although polls show Zapatero ahead, he is unlikely to garner an absolute majority in the 350-seat lower house of parliament, forcing him to seek an alliance with smaller parties, much as he does now.