Spain's Socialists suffer spectacular election rout

MADRID, Spain — Spain's ruling Socialists reeled Monday from an unprecedented mauling in local elections as protesters vented their anger over the highest jobless rate in the developed world.The rout was a grim omen for the party ahead of general elections scheduled for early next year, when the conservative Popular Party of Mariano Rajoy is expected to romp back into office after eight years in opposition.Support for the government collapsed on Sunday in the face of the beleaguered economy, soaring unemployment and massive week-long street protests."Spain demands changes," headlined the centre-right newspaper El Mundo."The tsunami of May 22 drowns the Socialists," said the centre-left El Pais, Spain's leading daily."The PP has more regional power than ever," the paper added."The triumph of the party of Mariano Rajoy was indisputable, overwhelming, as he was hoping to open the way to the prime minister's office," it said.With 100 percent of the ballots counted, the Socialists had captured just 27.79 percent of the total compared to 37.53 percent for the PP.Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero refused to contemplate calling early elections, vowing to pursue reforms to fix the economy and expand employment until the end of his mandate."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," he told a news conference.Three years of economic crisis took their toll, said Zapatero, who has promised not to stand for a third term in 2012."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. "Today, without doubt, they expressed their discontent," he said.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 dictator Francisco Franco.More than 66 percent of the 34 million elegi

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