Over to Obama

What do you think of Obama's speech? Read and listen to it here.

My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

Source: Telegraph

Bye bye Bush!

How do you think Bush will go down in history?

What are the images that come to mind when you think about his Presidency?

Here are a few reminders. Watch these videos: Part 1 and Part 2 and have a look at these photos to jog your memory.

Look at this humourous site which celebrates all things Bush.

More Palin revelations

Sarah Palin 'did not know Africa was a continent', say aides

Sarah Palin spent "tens of thousands" more than the quoted $150,000 on clothes for the Republican campaign, met McCain aides in her hotel room dressed in nothing but a towel, and did not know Africa was a continent, according to new reports.

Fox news has reported that Mrs Palin did not understand that Africa was a continent, not a country, and did not know what countries were in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In separate claims made in the latest issue of Newsweek magazine, the Republican vice presidential nominee was reported to have been told to buy three suits for the Republican convention, and to hire a stylist. Instead, she went on a spending spree in upmarket stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

Quoting unnamed sources within the McCain camp, the magazine alleges that most of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who "was shocked when he got the bill."

An angry aide described the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast", and predicted that the truth would eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

The magazine also claimed that Mrs Palin used low ranking staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards, and that up to $40,000 was spent on clothes for her husband Todd.

A number of articles of clothing have been lost, the magazine states.

The disclosures are made in "How He Did It, 2008", in Newsweek's Special Election Project, a behind-the-scenes account of the presidential election produced the day after the polls closed.

The magazine also claims that at the GOP convention in St. Paul, when aides Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her, Ms Palin walked into the room wearing only a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat to Todd, adding: "I'll be just a minute."

Other election revelations include that on the night Hillary Clinton officially lost the Democratic nomination, she enjoyed a long and friendly phone conversation with McCain.

"Clinton was actually on better terms with McCain than she was with Obama," reports the magazine. "Clinton and McCain had downed shots together on Senate junkets; they regarded each other as grizzled veterans of the political wars and shared a certain disdain for Obama as flashy and callow. "

Source: The Times

Listen to the telephone conversation between Palin and (who she thought was) Sarkozy.

Before she is confined to the dustbin of history; here is one more chance to admire the interview skills and the foreign policy credentials of Sarah Palin.

USA's Oldest Voter

Profile: Ann Nixon Cooper, 106, singled out for praise by Barack Obama

Ann Nixon Cooper, the 106-year-old black voter picked out by Barack Obama as embodying the spirit of his election victory, is an Atlanta housewife who has overcome personal hardship to raise a family and serve her community.

Mr Obama said that of all the millions of voters who had cast their ballot Mrs Nixon Cooper was on his mind, because of the enormous sweep of American history that her long life had witnessed.

"She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the colour of her skin," said the president-elect, before a rapturous crowd of more than 125,000 in Chicago's Grant Park.

"And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: 'Yes we can'."

The centenarian was born Ann Louise Nixon on January 9 in 1902 in Shelbyville, Tennessee, one of six siblings. When her mother died the brothers and sisters were split up, and Mrs Nixon Cooper was raised by her aunt.

In 1922 at the age of 20 she married Albert Berry Cooper, a dentist from Nashville, Tennessee. The young couple moved to the city of Atlanta, in Georgia, where for a few months she worked as a policy writer for the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, before starting a family.

As her husband's dentist's practice prospered, Mrs Nixon Cooper turned to public work, serving for more than 50 years on the board of the Gate City Nursery Association, and helping to found the Girls Club for African-American Youth in Atlanta.

"At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot," said Mr Obama.

Like other black Americans, Mrs Nixon Cooper would have gained the right to vote a mere 43 years ago, at the age of 63. She was still active in the community, teaching residents to read as part of a tutoring programme at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in the 1970s.

In 1980 Mrs Nixon Cooper's contribution to welfare and civil rights was recognised by Atlanta's WXIA-TV which awarded her a community service medal for her activism, working to improve conditions in the African-American community. This was followed in 2002 by the Annie L McPheeters Medallion for community service, awarded by the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History.

"She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that We Shall Overcome," said Mr Obama.

"A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Mr Obama asked what changes and what progress would his own daughters and their children would see if they should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper.

"This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment," he said.

"This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can."

Source: The Times

McCain Gaffe

You gotta feel for José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Here the Spanish Prime Minister is only four months from an end to his government's strained relations with that of President George W. Bush and blam! — along comes John McCain to suggest that the next four years might not be any better. During an interview in Miami earlier this week with Spanish-language station Union Radio, a reporter asked McCain whether, if elected, he would receive Zapatero in the White House. McCain answered, "Honestly, I have to analyze our relationships, situations and priorities, but I can assure you that I will establish closer relationships with our friends, and I will stand up to those who want to harm the United States."

Ouch. The question about Zapatero came after a series of questions on how McCain sees relations with Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba. He said he would not speak to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez "without any sort of preconditions, as Senator Obama has said he would," and said Chávez was "depriving his people of their democratic rights." He judged Bolivia's Evo Morales as "very similar" and also condemned Cuba's Raúl Castro. When the questioner said, "Now let's talk of Spain" and asked whether he'd invite Zapatero, McCain responded with a vague statement that he would meet "with those leaders who are our friends" and then cited Mexican President Felipe Calderón as an example. The questioner tried several more times to steer the Senator back to a clear answer on Spain, but McCain never directly addressed the nation, saying, "What I would say is that my record is that of someone who has worked in a friendly atmosphere with those who are our friends and faced up to those who aren't."

From this, much of the Spanish press has concluded that the Republican candidate, who hails himself as the experienced foreign policy choice in this election, confused Spain — a NATO member and key ally in the fight against terrorism — with one of those troublesome Latin American states. That was certainly the interviewer's impression, for she followed up with a gentle reminder that Spain was a country in Europe. As Spanish newspaper El País put it, "In the best-case scenario, [his answer] demonstrates his ignorance with respect to Zapatero."

Of course, there's a worst-case scenario: that McCain would, if elected, maintain his predecessor's chilly relationship with Spain. Spaniards may, on the whole, revile American politics and American comida de basura (junk food), but they still tend to measure their Prime Minister's international worth by the esteem with which the U.S. President holds him. And so, for the past four years, the Spanish Prime Minister has tried, ever so earnestly, to prove that he's one of the big boys. At every international summit he has tried to maneuver himself into position for a photograph with Bush. The press has breathlessly reported on every perfunctory exchange the two have had. And the much longed-for invitation to the White House — let alone to a certain ranch in Texas — has been the object of countless pages of speculation. But for all the aspiration, Zapatero has never managed to achieve anything like that famous 2003 photo of his predecessor, José María Aznar, in the Azores looking like he just got invited to the cool kids' party.

Of course, the fact that the cool kids' party happened to be taking place in Iraq explains a lot of the distance between the two current leaders: upon taking office in April 2004, Zapatero immediately pulled Spanish troops out of "the alliance of the willing." Which is one of the ironies of this situation — that Spain can so strongly support a foreign policy opposed to the Bush doctrine (whatever that is), while so strongly hoping for a show of respect from Washington. On Thursday, Spanish newspaper ABC's regret was palpable when it lamented that "the coldness between the governments of the U.S. and Spain could continue if the Republican candidate John McCain reaches the White House."

As for Zapatero himself, the Prime Minister is apparently taking this latest attack on his ego with characteristic equilibrium. McCain may not know who Spain's leader is, but Zapatero promised to work with the new Administration "whatever it is."

Source: Time

Too pink or too macho?

Two of Italy's new cabinet members. Photo: The First Post

The following is an article comparing the politics and attitudes in Italy and Spain after the recent general elections in both countries. Read the full article by clicking on the main title ("Too pink or too macho?") to this post.

There has been a lot of talk about gender equality in the run-up to Italy's recent general election, but as is all to clear from the line-up of TV magnate Silvio Berlusconi's new cabinet, men still rule here.

Out of 21 ministers in the new right-wing administration there are only four women, all given lightweight roles.

Most of them have so far won distinction more for their looks rather than for their political prowess.

The glamorous new Minister for Equal Opportunities, 32-year-old Mara Carfagna, is a former showgirl from one of Mr Berlusconi's television networks.

She also came sixth in the 1997 Miss Italy contest.

"You are simply gorgeous," an admirer posted on the new minister's website on her first day in office.

An MP since 2006, she lists her main hobby as "collecting pens" according to one of her profiles.

Environment Minister Stefania Prestagiacomo, 41, is a lawyer and a former co-ordinator of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party in Lombardy.

Fresh faces

Her good looks won for her the title of "Miss Parliament" when she was first elected as MP for Syracuse, in Sicily, 14 years ago.

A popular comedian once described her as: "the best thing in Italian politics".

Mr Berlusconi, now 71, who has described Spain's new government as "too pink" prides himself on being a ladies' man.

He cultivates a playboy image and makes off-colour jokes about his fondness for glamorous women, sometimes earning him public reprimands from his estranged second wife.

He once said that, if he were single, he would marry Ms Carfagna.

Another woman chosen for a cabinet post by Mr Berlusconi is Giorgia Meloni, the new youth minister. At 31, she is one of the youngest people ever to reach ministerial rank in Italy.

The 'grey quota'

She comes from a traditionally leftist Roman suburb where she worked successfully as a youth organiser for the post-fascist National Alliance party.

Maria Stella Gelmini, 34, also a lawyer, from Lombardy, is the new minister of education.

"I don't believe in the 'pink quota', rather the 'grey quota'," she is quoted as saying.

"Now we shall have the opportunity to find out how much 'grey matter' she has," was the somewhat tart comment of the left-wing daily La Repubblica.

Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of the former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who went into right-wing politics in the early 1990s after an earlier career as a model and minor actress, setting up a small right splinter party of her own, has been left out in the cold by Mr Berlusconi.

"I don't really think there is a future for me with the new government," she petulantly remarked.

Italian women tend to be discriminated against in the workplace despite some timid recent gender equality legislation.

Employment of women in the cultural labour market is gradually improving, according to the latest Italian government statistics, but Italian women still tend to get lesser-paid jobs - as librarians, archaeologists or historians, for example.

With female employment in Italy almost at the bottom of the EU ladder - at 46% - Ms Carfagna is going to have her work cut out* to try to change prevailing Italian macho mentalities.

Source: BBC News

Vocabulary Focus
:

* if you have your work cut out to do something, then you face a challenging job.

• You will have your work cut out to convince him of your ideas.
• I had my work cut out to get the class ready for the exams.
  

No footie or totty for army

Minister orders military internet ban

Spain's new defence minister, Carme Chacon, has caused an outcry after ordering her staff to stop browsing sports and entertainment websites while on duty.

Military personnel who check football results and surf for nude celebrities have been blamed for clogging up the ministry's computer system and bringing it close to collapse.

The ban was introduced within 10 days of the controversial appointment of Ms Chacon, 37, who is Spain's first female defence minister and is seven months pregnant.

A furious Mariano Casado, the secretary general of AUEM, the military's professional association, said: "It seems that the military is to be treated like children with filters placed on computers to control access."

Source: Telegraph

Pregnant minister

Foto: Bernat Armangue / AP

Spain's Pregnant Defense Minister


When Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's new cabinet members took their oath of office before King Juan Carlos on Monday, one of them, the recently-appointed Defense Minister, stood out from the rest. Literally. Carme Chacón, 37, is not only the first woman to head Spain's armed forces. She is also seven months pregnant.

By now, no one should be surprised by Zapatero's commitment to gender equality. In his first term, he passed a sweeping law against domestic violence, legalized gay marriage, eased divorce laws, and required political parties to practice gender parity. He also appointed equal numbers of men and women to cabinet positions, and named María Teresa Fernández de la Vega as his deputy prime minister.

This time around, the prime minister, who was re-elected on March 9, appointed more women than men to his cabinet. He also created a new Equality Ministry, charged with ensuring fairness in the workplace and continuing the fight against domestic violence. "For the Socialists, gender equality has become a sign of identity," says Maribel Montaño, secretary for equality during the previous administration.

But for all the preparation, the sight of Chacón inspecting troops on her first day in office, with her rounded belly covered in a stylish maternity blouse, came as a jolt. After walking firmly past a line of erect soldiers in their dress uniforms, the minister gave a brief, adulatory speech, then led the troops in a rousing cheer of "Viva España!"

For Spanish feminists, the small shock of that moment is exactly the point. "It's an important image precisely because it conveys normality," says Marisa Sotelo, president of the Madrid' based Women's Foundation. "It serves a pedagogic function: it shows that women can be and are everywhere."

And that's not the only lesson. By appointing Chacón (who lacks military training), Zapatero may also be making a kinder, gentler statement about the armed forces. The Prime Minister has been under pressure from NATO to add to the roughly 750 Spanish troops now deployed in Afghanistan, though at the recent NATO summit in Bucharest he maintained that current levels were sufficient. Among the largely pacificist Spanish population, support for military participation in combat is weak (over 50% of Spaniards support withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan altogether). But humanitarian and peace-keeping missions are another story: a 2005 poll by the Madrid-based Center for Sociological Research puts public support for those military efforts at more than 90%. The figure of a pregnant woman — "a woman in full womanhood," as Montaño puts it — only drives home that distinction. "It shows that the army doesn't just have to fulfill this masculine role of force," she says. "It can be more feminine, more humanitarian."

Although one conservative military organization, comprised largely of retired soldiers, lambasted Zapatero's choice as a display of "contempt," the armed forces' hierarchy itself has been characteristically circumspect. "We will receive her with the same respect as her predecessors," one high-ranking officer anonymously told El País newspaper, "and perhaps a little more delicacy."

Delicacy indeed, For now, the most pressing question is what Chacón will do when she gives birth in June. Thanks to Zapatero's efforts, Spanish women are entitled to 16 weeks paid maternity leave. But can a defense minister — especially a female one — afford to take four months off? Although the Socialist government recently increased paternity leaves to 15 days, it may soon find itself under internal pressure to extend those breaks for fathers as well.

Source: Time magazine

Vocabulary Focus

* if something stands out it is noticeable; easily seen.

• She stands out from others in the class. Her English is much better.
• He is so good looking that he always stands out in a crowd.
• The bright colours really make the heading stand out.

Other phrasal verbs with stand:

if you stand up for someone you defend them

• My colleagues never stand up for me even when they know that the boss is being unfair with me.
• You should stand up for your girlfriend. Don't let them talk like that about her!

if you stand in for someone you replace them in their job/task

• Ms. Campbell will be standing in for Anne while she is on maternity leave.
• The Prime Minister is unable to deliver the speech due to illness so his deputy will stand in for him.

Secret opinion polls

Poll puts Zapatero ahead (but don't tell the Spanish)

Spain's Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is set to clinch re-election on Sunday by a narrow margin, according to the results of a poll commissioned by The Times.

Conducted by the Spanish polling firm Sigma Dos, the latest survey shows Mr Zapatero's Socialist Party beating its conservative rivals by 3.8 percentage points. That result would give the Socialists enough seats in Parliament to form a Government, but short of an absolute majority.

Spanish media are barred from publishing opinion polls in the five days leading up to the election, but political parties and business groups continue to commission them. The results are traded widely among political and business elites but until now, have been kept from ordinary Spaniards.

Several Spanish media outlets, including the newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya, are now campaigning for an end to the “obsolete” law, introduced in the 1980s with the argument that polls could influence voters.

“The ban on publishing polls is a clear limitation on freedom of expression, unworthy of a solid democracy such as ours,” the newspaper said in a front page editorial today. The newspaper has decided to publish its own polls from a website in Andorra, just beyond the Spanish border, giving the Socialists a 3.4 point lead.

The Times poll was conducted yesterday after the second of two ill-tempered television debates between the Prime Minister and Mariano Rajoy of the right-wing Popular Party. In four hours of heated debate that drew record audiences, the candidates clashed over the worsening economy, rising immigration and anti-terrorism policy.

For the past four years, Mr Rajoy has excoriated the Spanish leader for his ill-fated efforts to negotiate a peace deal with Eta, the violent Basque separatist group, accusing him of “surrendering to terrorists”. The theme has played well with the Popular Party's supporters but failed to win over enough converts to win the election.

Mr Rajoy has changed tack during the campaign, focusing on Spain's stalling growth, rising prices and, above all, immigration. The Times poll suggests that at least one of Mr Rajoy's key proposals — to force immigrants to sign a contract stating that they will abide by Spanish laws and customs — has connected with voters in Spain. Sixty-two per cent of respondents said they would support such a proposal while just 26.4 per cent rejected it.

The Spanish Government has blasted Mr Rajoy's plan as xenophobic and redundant: immigrants must already abide by Spanish law, it points out, and even those born in the country would have a hard time agreeing what “Spanish customs” are. But in private, Socialist Party officials worry that the high rate of immigration in the past few years could cost it votes on Sunday.

With the influx of immigrants, Spain's once-dwindling population has jumped from 40 million to 45 million since 2000, boosting the economy but creating tensions in working-class, urban areas where many immigrants have settled.

The economy has been another source of worry for Socialist Party strategists after four years of strong growth. New unemployment figures showed this week that 53,000 Spaniards lost their jobs in February, taking the overall unemployment rate to 8.6 per cent. The Spanish manufacturing sector is also at its weakest in more than six years.

Mr Zapatero swept to power unexpectedly four years ago on a wave of public anger over the previous Government's handling of the Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people and injured more than 1,800. The conservative Government of José María Aznar tried to pin the outrage on Eta, despite mounting evidence that it was the work of Islamic radicals. Analysts say it was punished by voters who would not normally have gone to the polls.

This time around, the challenge for the Socialists has been to motivate those voters again to support it at the polls. According to the Sigma Dos poll, they have managed to motivate supporters by playing-up fears of a Popular Party government. Turnout is projected to be about 75 per cent of the electorate, only slightly below the 77 per cent in 2004.

“The highly polarised campaign has succeeded in galvanising voters,” said Carlos Malo de Molina, head of Sigma Dos. “The uncertainty over the final result is also driving them to the polls.”

Source: The Times

Spanish Coup

1981: Rebel army seizes control in Spain

Spain is in a state of political confusion after an attempted right-wing coup.

This evening about 200 soldiers and members of the paramilitary Civil Guard stormed the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes, firing automatic weapons and shouting orders.

They took hostage about 350 MPs debating a new government.

The group - led by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero Molina, an officer of the Civil Guard - told all those present to lie down.

Lt Col Tejero then called on the King to make an announcement.

All streets around the building have been sealed off.

The coup plot originated in Valencia, in eastern Spain, under the command of Lieutenant General Jaime Milan del Bosch.

A supporter of the late dictator General Franco, the former commander of the elite Brunete Armoured Division near Madrid was recently transferred because of his opposition to the new political order and was suspected of plotting against it.

The general has declared a state of emergency and ordered tanks onto the streets of Valencia.

In Madrid the rebel army took over the radio and TV stations for 90 minutes. They dispersed when riot police arrived on the scene.

Attempts to restore order

The King meanwhile has called on the civil service to take on the role of parliament based at Zarzuela Palace.

The joint chiefs-of-staff issued a communiqué saying all measures had been taken to put down the rebellion and restore order.

Despite these reassurances Spaniards are now wondering how long their five-year democracy can last.

Although Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy has been fairly smooth - until now - there have been rumblings of discontent among the right.

A few weeks ago Spain's first democratically elected prime minister Adolfo Suarez resigned

.
It is believed he was under pressure by the right wing of his Democratic Centre Union party and the armed forces about concessions made to separatists in Catalonia and the Basque regions.

Source: BBC News

Do you remember anything about the day of the attempted coup or do you know any interesting stories related to it?

Or are there any other days in Spanish history that are significant or memorable for some reason?

General Election

The General Election campaign officially starts on Friday but I'm a bit fed up of politics already.

What are the factors that you consider when deciding which party to vote for? Why? Do you think it is important to vote? Do you already know which party you will vote for or will the campaign help you make up your mind? DON'T REVEAL WHICH PARTY YOU SUPPORT!

Spanish PM faces voters' verdict

If the US election is a marathon, Spain's is a sprint.

The official starting-gun for campaigning will be fired on Friday, barely two weeks before voters go to the polls on 9 March.

In between, Spaniards will be treated to two televised debates, along with 30-second chunks of television advertising - barely enough time for a Spanish politician to say "vote for me".

But as Spaniards are acutely aware, the outcome of even the shortest sprint can be transformed in the final yards.

Last time, as 11 March 2004 dawned, the governing Popular Party (PP) had the winning line in sight. But within hours, 191 lives had been claimed by an Islamist terror attack.

Three days later the PP was voted out of office, after wrongly blaming the Madrid train bombings on the Basque separatist group, Eta.

In some ways, the 2008 general election campaign is a straight replay.

The party leaders are the same as in 2004, the threat from Basque and Islamist militants continues, and the PP has loudly and indignantly prolonged the debate over its response to 11 March.

Eta controversy

In January, a police swoop on an alleged Islamist terror cell in Barcelona refocused attention on homeland security.

In the same month, the governing Socialist Party (PSOE) admitted to having maintained secret contact with Eta, even after the gunmen broke a ceasefire in December 2006.

Terror will always be an election issue in Spain, and a fatal attack would once again transform the campaign.

But increasingly, the 2008 campaign seems destined to be decided somewhere more obvious - in voters' pockets.

After a remarkable 14 consecutive years of growth, the Spanish economy is showing signs of fatigue.

Having long outpaced France, Germany and Britain, Spain's GDP growth will fall below the EU average by the end of 2009, according to the European Commission.

At 4.4%, inflation is at a 10-year high, while January's unemployment figures were the highest for eight years.

With a decade-long housing boom also spluttering to a halt, the opposition is suddenly keener to talk economics, rather than Eta.

Missed opportunity

For Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, it is a case of bad timing.

Over his four-year term, he can point to impressive average annual growth of 3.6%, and claim to have created three million new jobs.

Today, Spaniards are wealthier than their Italian counterparts.

As recently as September, the prime minister boasted that in the Champions League of global economies, Spain had "won the most games".

In retrospect, the manager should probably have called an election back in the autumn, while his team was still winning.

Mr Zapatero's supporters stress the transformational nature of his premiership, under the slogan: "reasons to believe".

Marketed simply as "Z", he is billed as an enlightened leader for the 21st Century - a man who pushed through gay marriage, fast-track divorce and greater workplace rights for women, together with a law explicitly condemning the repression of the Franco years.

Church steps in

Such in-your-face liberalism has provoked criticism from Spain's still-influential Catholic Church.

In January, the Spanish Bishops' Conference released a statement arguing that "not all (electoral) programmes are equally compatible with faith and the demands of Christian life".

In a thinly veiled attack on the government's contacts with Eta, the statement also stressed that a "terrorist" organisation could not be considered a "political interlocutor".

Responding, Mr Zapatero made great play of complaining to the papal nuncio in Madrid.

But privately, PSOE activists relished the confrontation as an opportunity to portray the campaign as a battle between the forces of progress and reaction.

Linking Spain's bishops to the opposition, Mr Zapatero told one newspaper: "the most right-wing elements in the Church... already call the shots in the PP, and they want to call the shots in Spain".

On the right, the PP's campaign appears designed to energise its conservative base.

Party leader Mariano Rajoy has come out against adoption by gay couples, and proposed that immigrants sign a contract with the Spanish state, promising to integrate with local customs and to go home if they do not find a job.

The PP website excitedly informs us that Mr Rajoy listens to The Police, and enjoys watching the DVD of Back to the Future, a title which aptly sums up the party's election mindset.

Many senior PP figures feel that they were cheated of certain victory in 2004, and that Mr Zapatero's win - courtesy of a destabilising terror attack - upset the natural order of Spanish politics.

Close race

Spain's notoriously hit-and-miss opinion polls still put PSOE marginally ahead, but the lead has narrowed and smaller leftist and regional parties may well hold the balance of power in parliament.

Much will depend on turnout: in 2004, an unusually high level of participation after the train bombings helped propel the PSOE to its surprise win.

But historically, the PP has been more effective at getting its core supporters to the polls.

Against the backdrop of a faltering economy, the key question is: will Spaniards who indignantly turned to Mr Zapatero four years ago feel similarly motivated to back him today?

Source: BBC News

Election Spain Podcast Here you can listen to me reading the article above. I feel like a newsreader and occassionally stumble over my words. Still, it is my first attempt!

Statesmen and women

Photo: AFP
This is especially for one of you, who for some bizarre reason is an avid fan of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He has been making the headlines a lot recently and not just because of his political decisions!

Sarkozy 'serious' about ex-model

Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni holidayed in Egypt in DecemberFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy has said his relationship with former supermodel Carla Bruni is "serious" but refused to reveal any wedding plans.

He told reporters there was a "strong chance" the media would only learn about the wedding after the event.

The whirlwind romance between the two has been making headlines in France and Ms Bruni's native Italy for weeks.

Mr Sarkozy, 52, and his wife Cecilia announced their divorce in October, after being married for 11 years.

His popularity has fallen by several points according to several opinion polls since the New Year, a decline attributed by many to the over-exposure of his private life.

Many French people increasingly see his romance with Ms Bruni as impulsive, flashy, vulgar and, most importantly, distracting from his work as president, the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby reports from Paris.

But at a press conference in Paris, Mr Sarkozy also defended his political record since becoming president in May, commenting on everything from the need for French economic reform to his relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Jagger and Clapton

The French leader said he and his girlfriend wished to "break with a hateful tradition of hypocrisy" by making their relationship public.

"Carla and I have decided not to lie," he said, in what the French news agency AFP reports was a clear allusion to the late President Francois Mitterrand's concealment of an illegitimate daughter for years.

Mr Sarkozy has three children, two from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli, and the third by Cecilia.

Ms Bruni, 39, has a young son from a previous relationship with philosopher Raphael Enthoven.

At various times, she was also linked to men including Mick Jagger, Donald Trump and Eric Clapton.

She has made a successful career as a singer since her modelling days.

Record in office


France was in need of change, Mr Sarkozy said, after "decades of reforms being put off, of failed reforms".

Two Nobel economists, Amartya Sen of India and Joseph Stiglitz of the US, would be working on changes in the way French economic growth is calculated to include quality-of-life factors, he announced.

People, he added, "can no longer accept the growing gap between statistics that show continuing progress [in growth] and the increasing difficulties they are having in their daily lives".

Accepting that "the international situation is less good than you could have hoped for", Mr Sarkozy insisted France's own economic strategy would not change.

On employment and education, he called for greater use of positive discrimination, saying there was "not enough diversity" in France, and called for creating universities "where people want to study".

Advertising on public television should be scrapped, he argued, and the shortfall funded by a levy on private TV channels.

On international affairs, the French president defended sending congratulations to his Russian counterpart after the parliamentary election in December, saying it did not affect his ability to criticise him on such things as human rights and Chechnya.

"I prefer to congratulate Putin, while asking him: 'Why did you do that? But bravo all the same for being elected'," he said.

Source: BBC News

Which statesman or woman; from the present or past do you most admire and why? What was among their achievements?

And which one do you despise?

Anniversary - Death of Franco

1975: Spanish dictator Franco dies

General Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain with an authoritarian hand for 39 years, has died at the age of 82.

He had been ill for five weeks and died early this morning at La Paz hospital, Madrid. Doctors said the cause of death was heart failure aggravated by peritonitis.

Flags all around the country are at half-mast and the general's body is now lying in state at the El Pardo Palace.

Franco, also know as the Generalissimo, will be buried next week at the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum.

Forgiveness

The Prime Minister, Carlos Arias Navarro, his voice trembling with emotion, announced the death at 1000 local time on radio.

He said that on his deathbed General Franco had asked his enemies to forgive him.

"I ask pardon of all my enemies, as I pardon with all my heart all those who declared themselves my enemy, although I did not consider them to be so," the general had said.

He also asked the Spanish people to remain loyal to Prince Juan Carlos, his designated successor who will be sworn in as king tomorrow.

In a veiled warning to resist separatist movements such as the Basque nationalist group ETA, he advised the nation to "keep the lands of Spain united".

General Franco successfully led the Nationalist armies against the Loyalists during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, with support from Hitler's Germany and Italy under Mussolini.

Franco allowed Hitler to use Spain's naval bases during World War II, then declared Spain neutral in 1943 when it looked like the Allies would win.

Under Franco Spain has enjoyed stability and relative prosperity, especially after reforms introduced since 1959 that modernised administration and industry.

His regime has also been deeply reactionary, with political parties and non-government trade unions banned, and separatists and communists repressed.

World hopes for democracy

Leaders of European countries have been guarded in their reaction the dictator's death and expressed hope that the new king would introduce modern democracy to Spain.

The European Commission expressed "sympathy and friendship for the people of Spain" and condolences to General Franco's widow.

No western European nation will be sending a head of state to the funeral apart from Monaco.

But staunch supporters in South America, such as President Pinochet of Chile and Bolivia's President Banzer will attend.

In Britain, Labour backbenchers are furious that the government is sending a representative - Lord Shepherd, the Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords - to the funeral. Stanley Newens, MP for Harlow, said the decision was "an affront to those who fought and died in the Civil War in Spain in the 1930s".

Read some memories of Franco's death.

Do you remember when Franco died? What are your memories? And/or what are the memories of relatives older than you?

Chavez outburst is ringtone hit

The king of Spain's recent undiplomatic outburst at the Venezuelan president has become a ringtone hit across Spain.

An estimated 500,000 people have downloaded the insult featuring the words "Why don't you shut up?", generating a reported 1.5m euros (£1m).

King Juan Carlos won plaudits in the media back home.

King Juan Carlos asked Hugo Chavez to "shut up" at a summit in Chile last week after the president said Spain's ex-PM Jose Maria Aznar was a "fascist".

Branded mugs, t-shirts and websites featuring the row are also profitable.

In Venezuela, a group of students who oppose Mr Chavez's government have also been downloading the ringtone, a US newspaper reported.

"It's a form of protest," a 21-year-old student in Caracas told the Miami Herald. "It's something that a lot of people would like to tell the president."

Companies selling the ringtones have avoided legal problems concerning breach of the king's image rights by using an actor to voice the line.

'No crisis'

The spat began at the Ibero-American Summit in Chile's capital, Santiago, last Saturday when Mr Chavez called former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a close ally of US President George W Bush, a fascist, adding "fascists are not human. A snake is more human."

Current Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero then said: "[Former Prime Minister] Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people."

When Mr Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, the king leaned forward and said: "Why don't you shut up?".

The row escalated when Mr Chavez said the king was "imprudent" and asked if he knew in advance of the 2002 coup against him.

President Chavez later accused the king of "arrogance" but said he did not want a political crisis with Spain - only that Venezuela's head of state be respected.

Spain has said it hopes for a swift return to normal diplomatic relations.

Source: BBC News

Read some other opinions from Venezuelans and Spaniards about the incident.

Do you share any of the above opinions? What is your view about what happened?