Spanish Socialists Lose Ground in City, European Voting

The governing Socialists lost ground Wednesday in elections for the European Parliament and city halls, but held on as Spain’s dominant party.

Early official results appeared to bear out expected voter dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez’s government after five months of strikes and labor protests over austere economic policies and an unemployment rate of 21.5%, the highest in Europe.

Early returns showed the Socialists apparently lost control of a number of key cities--including Madrid, Valencia and Seville--and lost eight seats in the European Parliament.

There were no immediate official results in the day’s third ballot, for 13 of the country’s 17 regional parliaments. The Socialists went into the ballot controlling 11 of the regional assemblies at stake.

With 32% of the vote counted, Interior Minister Jose Barrionuevo said the Socialists had 37% of the votes for 70,000 municipal posts, down from 43% in the last local elections in 1983. The conservative Popular Alliance was running a distant second with 22%.

With 82% of the votes counted, the Socialists were projected to win 28 of Spain’s 60 seats in the European Parliament. It was the first time Spaniards had voted for seats in the Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Communities.