THE END of an era:

Voter anger over Spain's economic plight is certain to sweep the center-right People's Party to an election victory on Sunday, giving it a resounding mandate to slash public spending and try to rescue the country from the euro zone crisis.

The Socialists, in power for seven years, are set to become the latest political victims of Europe's economic woes as voters punish them for failing to heal the sickly economy and fix the worst unemployment rate in the European Union.

Victims? I'd say "culprits", particularly in Spain. Zapatero spent two years not only denying there was a crisis to begin with, but labeled anyone who suggested so as "antipatriotics" who wished their country hurt and boasting that Spain's banking system was the world's most solid. Which means he didn't do a thing when it would have been relatively cheap. Then, when he finally recognized there was a crisis he went fully Keynesian, believing that merely throwing money in half-baked plans with no accountability would change the situation by itself. So he failed to do real reforms and spent the 'silver bullet' (at that time, the indebtedness was not high) without success. Then, on May last year the debt was spiralling out of control, he had to follow the EU, Obama's and China's orders to trim spending no matter what, which he did with the faith of the converted.