US embassy cable - 05MADRID2479

UNCLAS MADRID 002479 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, SP, PSOE - Socialist Party, Popular Party 
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. 
 
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Ready to Sue... 
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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. 
 
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Blow to the PP 
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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