Do you approve or disapprove of the performance of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as president?

              Sept. 28     Sept. 13   Aug. 31

Approve         51.8%      51.4%      49.9%

Disapprove      40.7%      41.9%      41.9%

Do you approve or disapprove of the performance of Mariano Rajoy as opposition leader?

            Sept. 28      Sept. 13    Aug. 31

Approve      31.2%          31.4%      30.5%

Disapprove   60.8%          62.4%      63.4%

Source: Instituto Opina / Cadena Ser
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000  
Spanish adults, conducted on Sept. 28, 2006.
Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

Seven months have passed since Basque Motherland and Liberty (ETA) announced its ceasefire. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the peace process?

              Sept. 2006    Aug. 2006

Optimistic       39.4%         49.0%

Pessimistic      53.0%          39.3%

Source: Instituto Opina / Cadena Ser
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 Spanish adults, conducted on Sept. 28, 2006. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

Unless Zapatero is able to push through reforms that legalize Batasuna, this is never going to end.  ETA will embrace the bullet because Batasuna was denied the ballot, and the Spanish government will deny Batasuna the ballot because ETA embraced the bullet.  Will this ever end?

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

The governing Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) is holding on to first place in Spain, according to a poll by Instituto Opina released by Cadena Ser. 43 per cent of respondents would support the PSOE in the next general election, while 37 per cent would vote for the opposition conservative Popular Party (PP).

Hmmm, Zapatero is a Socialist party leader with programme which is leftist in a significant part, Merkel had a neoliberal programme which she was forced to throw out.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}