SPAIN: PM Zapatero's Socialists Suffer Historic Losses; Youth Protests Vs. Politics Continue For 9th Day.

NYTIMES/ R. Minder

    PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (pictured) admitted that voters punished his Socialist Party for 21% unemployment as it suffered historic regional and municipal electoral losses.
     The conservative Popular Party won 37.6% of the votes vs 27.8% for the Socialists.
     Socialists lost their long-held major cities of Barcelona and Seville, its traditional strongholds in Castilla-La Mancha and could lose Extremadura.
   “Almost two million jobs have been destroyed and I know that a lot of Spaniards are facing serious problems. Today, without a doubt, they have expressed their discomfort,” Zapatero said.
     Meanwhile, thousands of the self-labelled “indignant” youths continued their protests of Spain's political system...for the 9th day.

     “If you had told me a few months ago that thousands of people would take to the streets to complain about our political system,” said one Madrid protester. “I would have found it hard to believe, because it looked like we were an apathetic generation that was incapable of responding to a crisis even when it was destroying our jobs like a tsunami.”