Chastening

The Popular Party (PP) now has the heaviest concentration of local and regional power that any party has possessed since Spain's return to democracy after the death of Franco. The reasons behind the victory are various, but what is beyond doubt is that Mariano Rajoy's party is now shouldering a huge burden of public responsibility. The campaign that preceded Sunday's elections was self-absorbed and unenlightening. Self-absorbed, because the major parties chose to merely continue their usual crossfire of mutual accusations; unenlightening, because little was heard in the way of proposals or programs.

While the PP sought to make this vote the first round of the next national general elections, the Socialist Party (PSOE) fruitlessly attempted to keep its focus on the local and regional ambits. This did not prevent it from obtaining its worst-ever results in municipal elections, as well as losing some of the regional administrations that were still in its hands.

The Socialists at first hoped to keep the defeat within respectable bounds, trying to concentrate their efforts on obtaining victories in certain municipalities and regions of particular symbolic importance. Voters did not even give them this consolation. The PSOE lost Castilla-La Mancha and its clear majority in Extremadura, two regions which have never known governments of any other political stripe. It also lost the city halls in Barcelona and Seville, two cities which, for different reasons, have been closely linked to the PSOE for three decades. For the first time the CiU Catalan nationalist bloc comes to the fore as a municipal force in the region.

The leading beneficiary, however, has been the Popular Party, which saw its expectations of an easy victory confirmed as it continues to trust in a similar victory in the next general elections. But, together with the PP, regional and especially municipal representation has also accrued to different parties, of both right and left. These include UPyD in the city of Madrid and, in Catalonia, the leftist formation CUP and the xenophobic Plataforma per Catalunya. Another significant development is the entry of Bildu in municipal councils in the Basque Country, especially in Guipúzcoa province and its capital San Sebastián.

Obviously the Popular Party succeeded in imposing its agenda, projecting onto the local and regional Socialist candidates the lackluster image of the national government and the prime minister. Zapatero's refusal to run for another term did not have the desired effect, and the PSOE as a whole is left to pick up the bill. From now on the succession amounts to the toss of a coin, not only since it is unknown who the candidate will be, but also due to the effects it may have among disenchanted Socialist voters. The PP's pressure for early elections will not help matters.

Sunday's elections were held to elect municipal councils and the parliaments of 13 regions, not to decide on a precipitate end to the national legislature. The landslide result, however, places a heavy responsibility on the government and the Socialist Party. If Zapatero and his Cabinet do not show they are capable of political initiatives, the PP will feel strong enough to demand the dissolution of the two chambers.

The important consequences of Sunday's elections for national politics cannot, however, obscure the pending tasks in the municipal and regional environments. The PP's victory means that it will be responsible for addressing the main problems faced by municipal and regional governments that have hardly been mentioned in the campaign.

The greatest of these is the serious budgetary situation of these governments ? a matter which not only received little attention in the campaign, but has not even been publicly acknowledged by the parties. In the accumulation of this debt, no party appears in a good light, so that it would make no sense for the PP to yield to the temptation of casting all the blame on the Socialists; what is more, this would not spare the country a predictable spate of financial turbulence.

The dimension of the defeat suffered by the Socialist Party unexpectedly caused Zapatero himself to appear before the cameras in the evening to shoulder his responsibility. This was a manner of showing that, though on his way out, he is still the leader of the party, as well as a gesture to cover his eventual successor. He pointed to the economic crisis as the principal cause of the chastening inflicted on the Socialists, and tried to defend the government's performance, insisting on the need to go ahead with the reforms for the sake of economic recovery and job creation. This is certainly his intention, viable or not.

The most surprising factor in this campaign was the emergence of the May 15 Movement, where the slogan repeatedly chanted was "they don't represent us." Whatever option each voter chose on Sunday at the polls, the fact is that, today, municipal and regional governments do represent us, and it is they who will be accountable for their actions once they are duly constituted.