The Spanish voter has spoken, or so he thinks. In yesterday’s General Elections, the government of José Maria Rodríguez Zapatero was defeated by a big margin. PP, the opposition party under Mariano Rajoy, won the approval of some 10,550,000 Spanish voters, resulting in 186 out of 350 seats in the Spanish Parliament, against 110 seats for the new opposition party, PSOE. In Mallorca, results were similar with 5 seats for PP against 3 for PSOE.

Spain has thus become the 6th nation within the European Union, where the ruling party was ousted during the last 18 months as governments in the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal, Denmark and now Spain had to surrender their powers over the economic turmoil of recent years, coupled with frustration over high unemployment, national debt ratios and a general inability to cope with the political and economic crisis.

The democratic voter in Spain, however, seems to suffer from a substantial ration of delusion. The outgoing government did not have the right answers for the punishment of the markets, just as the new PP-led government of Señor Rajoy will not possibly have them. The current political structure in those European countries that are debt-ridden over their eyebrows does not allow for any quick solutions. Mariano Rajoy will find it hard to find the 18,000,000,000 Euros that he would need to cover the National Deficit, just as Señor Zapatero did. The markets have shown that they have no confidence in Spain and that they are merciless. Any Spanish government of any political colour would find it near impossible to create new jobs in order to lower the highest unemployment rate anywhere in Europe. Spain would need a political leader and a government prepared to face realities, use imagination and innovation and resort to unconventional if not revolutionary measures. Zapatero has had a few chances and did not know how to convert them. In my humble opinion, Rajoy does not have the slightest chance as the coming months will surely prove, or indeed, today’s or tomorrow’s market jitters. I would even dare say that Señor Rajoy might not last the full term of office. Let’s see.

The photo was taken in Portocolom (Felanitx), Baleares, Spain. The date: November 13th, 2011. The time: 16:16:44.