Spain votes on Sunday in an election likely to return the ruling Socialists to power, though again short of an absolute majority, after an ill-tempered campaign focused on a weakening economy.Four years ago, then opposition leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero came from behind to win power on a wave of voter anger at the ruling Popular Party, who tried to blame the ETA Basque separatists for election-eve bomb attacks by Islamic militants.
The killing of a former Socialist councillor in the Basque Country on Friday, which all major parties blamed on ETA, has again cast a pall over a Spanish election. But political commentators say this time around, the attack is unlikely to radically change the outcome after a campaign dominated by worries over soaring immigration and the end of an economic boom.
Economists say growth could fall as low as 2.0 percent this year -- a rate not seen since the early 1990s -- from over 4 percent a year ago as a global credit squeeze chokes Spain's already-cooling property sector.