Socialists win, but still short of majority
Spain’s Socialist Party gained five seats in national parliamentary elections. That left them still seven short of an absolute majority. However, the right-of-center Populist Party also gained five seats. The biggest losers were smaller left-wing parties, so the Socialists’ actual coalition could be smaller. Reuters says political analysts expected the Socialists to coalition with the Catalan party Convergencia i Unio (CiU), which has sided with the Socialist minority government in many votes over the last four years.
Spain’s real estate bubble/credit crunch fallout was an overhead in the elections, but the Socialists got a pass to continue to fight the issue themselves.
Sarkozy party loses in municipal elections
French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s rightist UMP lost votes in the first round of municipal elections but hopes to hold firm in the March 16 runoff round. French voters think Sarko has been gallivanting with Carla Bruni too much, as much as anything. Nice to know that Euro voters can be as personality-focused, issues-lite as Americans.
Olmert OKs more West Bank homes
In a move that is certain to do nothing good for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has OKed as many as 330 homes in the West Bank. Per the Reuters story, Israeli officials said they revived a plan to build a total of 750 homes in Givat Ze’ev, a settlement near Jerusalem. About 200 partially built homes will be completed as well as the new ones approved by Olmert.
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