SPAIN poised to undergo Europe's next leadership shake-up:

In Spain, dissatisfaction with the state of affairs runs so deep that the Socialists are poised to lose even here in the southern region of Andalusia, where the party has enjoyed a stranglehold on politics since democracy was restored in Spain in 1975.

But a win for the Popular Party, or PP, could prove a poisoned chalice. It would inherit a nation beset by an unemployment rate of more than 20%, a shaky banking system and growing doubt by global investors about Madrid's ability to pay its debts and make the painful reforms required to get the economy back on track.