Spain's Socialists suffer local election thumping

MADRID, Spain — Spain's ruling Socialists sustained spectacular local election losses Sunday as protesters vented outrage over the highest jobless rate in the industrialized world.Support for the government collapsed in the face of the beleaguered economy, soaring unemployment and massive street protests, a grim omen for 2012 general elections.With 99.80 percent of the municipal ballots counted, the Socialists lagged by more than two million votes, capturing just 27.79 percent of the total compared to 37.54 percent for the conservative Popular Party."The results of the vote show that the Socialist Party has clearly lost today's elections. We have suffered a broad setback compared to four years ago," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.Three years of economic crisis took their toll, said Zapatero, who has promised not to stand for re-election."It destroyed thousands of jobs. It is a crisis that had profound effects on citizens' morale. I know that many Spaniards suffer great hardship and fear for their futures," the prime minister told a news conference."Today, without doubt, they expressed their discontent," he said. But the prime minister refused to contemplate calling early elections, vowing to pursue reforms to fix the economy and grow jobs until the end of his mandate.Grinding in the humiliation, Socialists lost historic bastions Seville and Barcelona, a city they had run since the first municipal vote in 1979 four years after the death of General Francisco Franco.About 65 percent of the 34 million elegible voters cast a ballot to choose 8,116 mayors, 68,400 town councillors and 824 members of regional parliaments for 13 of the 17 semi-autonomous regions.Of the 13 regional parliaments up for grabs, the Socialists were outvoted in every one including former stronghold Castilla-La Mancha but should cling on in Extramadura as part of a left-wing coalition.The big winner of the night was opposition leader Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party, widely forecast to sweep into government next year for th

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