Spain has become the first country among the 25-nation European Union bloc to approve the EU’s constitution — but turnout was shockingly low.
That means approval, but not an overwhelming mandate.
With more than 90 percent of votes tallied, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, the deputy prime minister, announced Sunday night that 76 percent of voters had said yes to the constitution, which still has to be formally ratified by the Spanish Parliament. But the turnout Sunday – 42 percent of approximately 35 million eligible voters – was widely seen as disappointing, falling 3 percentage points below turnout for European parliamentary elections in June…
“Zapatero wanted to be the first in Europe, to be a model for the rest of the Europeans, and he rushed ahead,” said Mariano Rajoy, the president of the Popular Party, the main opposition group in Parliament, referring to Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. “The turnout is not a model for anyone, because it amounts to a failure.”
Barcepundit (a Spain-based weblog) has an excellent roundup.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.