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Voters punish Spanish socialists with tilt to the right
Rajoy’s People’s Party comes to power as conservatives storm to a crushing election victory
Rajoy, who led his party to an absolute parliamentary majority in Sunday’s election, is widely expected to push through drastic measures to try to prevent Spain being sucked deeper into a debt crisis threatening the whole euro zone (Getty Images)
‘Difficult times are coming,’ Rajoy, 56, told supporters in his victory speech, with financial markets hungry for details on how he will attack a steep public deficit threatening to push the euro zone’s fourth economy toward a perilous bail-out (Getty Images)
‘Spain’s voice must be respected again in Brussels and Frankfurt… We will stop being part of the problem and will be part of the solution,’ said Rajoy, who is not scheduled to take office for a month (Getty Images)
President of the Catalan Nationalist Party CIU Artur Mas (L) celebrates next to CIU candidate for general elections Duran i Lleida (R) after the first results of the general elections were announced (AFP/Getty Images)
Voters vented their rage on the Socialists, who led Spain from boom to bust in seven years in charge (Getty Images)
With 5 million people out of work, the European Union’s highest jobless rate, the country is heading into its second recession in four years (AFP/Getty Images)
Spaniards were the fifth European nation to throw out their leaders because of the spreading euro zone crisis, following Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Italy (AFP/Getty Images)
Supporters pf Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE) react on November 20, 2011 at PSOE’s headquarters in Madrid (AFP/Getty Images)
The PP took 186 seats in the 350-seat lower house, according to official results with 99.95 percent of the vote counted. The Socialists slumped to 111 seats from 169 in the outgoing parliament, their worst showing in 30 years (AFP/Getty Images)
