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Financial Times interview stirs up the electon campaign
By h.b. - Mar 2, 2008 - 9:37 AM
ALSO SEE : • Spanish Government announces plans to promote religious freedom - May 8, 2008 - 8:43 AM
• Zapatero appears on national television programme 59 segundos - Apr 29, 2008 - 8:16 AM

There is extensive coverage on the Spanish General Electon on the Financial Times website
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The Partido Popular Communications Secretary told the paper that their strategy was to force an abstention in the Socialist vote
Speaking on the Cadena Ser radio station, the Financial Times journalist, Leslie Crawford, has defended her article published last Friday and which included an interview with Gabriel Elorriaga, the Communications Secretary of the Partido Popular.

She confirmed that she had been told that the PP policy was to ‘sow sufficient doubts’ on the economy, immigration, and the nationalist parties, because he understood that few people would change from the PP to the PSOE or vice-versa, and so increased doubts would lead to more Socialist voters staying at home.

A statement released from the PP late on Friday tried to backpedal on the strategy, denying the comment, but the F.T. journalist is standing by her statement confirming she was told in the interview carried out last Wednesday.

The PP strategy could be an effective one, but talking about it to the press has been a mistake for the party, and the interview
has had a large effect on the campaign.

The IU leader, Gaspar Llamazares, compared the PP to Batasuna, ETA’s illegal wing, as being those to want a high abstention at the poll, and the Socialist leader, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, declared in Las Palmas on Saturday, ‘I want to win with votes, others with abstention’.

You can read the article by Leslie Crawford - here

Meanwhile, The latest two opinion polls published on Sunday in El País and ABC, give victory to the PSOE but say the Socialists will fall short of an overall majority.
The poll carried out by Metroscopia for El País has data province by province and gives the Socialists 42.9% of the vote, compared to 38.8% for the Partido Popular. The lead is cut to just 2% in the DYM poll for ABC, 42% to 40%, leading to the conclusion that the elections remain for many too close to call.

The El País result is more in line with the polls published in other media last week, and shows an increase in the percentage vote for both the main parties, compared to the elections in 2004. That in turn shows an increasing two party system across the country, with the two main parties set to hold 91% of the seats in Congress.

Indications are that the Socialists will win seats in Las Palmas, Zaragoza, Baleares, Toledo, Murcia and Barcelona, and lose one in A Coruña, Madrid and Córdoba. The PP will pick up a seat in Almería, two or three in Cataluña, and two in the Valencia region.

The will lose one in Baleares, and perhaps in Salamanca and Valladolid. The areas of Teruel and Ciudad Real could also see seats changing hands.


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