Although they lost badly, it's hard to say how much real confidence voters have in the center-right to fix the problems of the Spanish economy. The unemployment numbers are staggering (21% but up to 41% for youth) and there are no easy answers to get out of this mess. It's easy to understand voter discontent because there's a lot of that going around in quite a few countries. The model of recent years simply doesn't work any longer. Al Jazeera:
Spain's ruling Socialist Party has suffered stinging losses in local elections, and now faces a balancing act between voter anger over sky-high unemployment and investor demands for strict austerity measures.
A week of protests by Spaniards fed up with the stagnant economy and the EU's highest jobless rate preceded Sunday's elections, which left the Socialists out of power in most of the country's cities and almost all the 17 autonomous regions.
Pressure could now grow from inside and outside the Socialist party for Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, to call for early elections, though he vowed on Sunday night to hang on to the end of his term in March next year.
While the outcome of local elections does not always forecast general elections, the centre-right opposition Popular Party (PP) will try to turn Sunday's momentum into a victory at the national level.
