Madrid - Spain's conservative opposition People's Party (PP) won Sunday's European elections, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega announced. The PP took 42 per cent of the vote to win 23 of the 50 Spanish seats in the European Parliament, according to results based on 94 per cent of the vote counted.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists came second with 38.6 per cent and 21 seats.
The poll was seen as a test for Zapatero at a time of deep economic crisis.
Analysts said the conservatives had needed a clear victory for opposition leader Mariano Rajoy to reaffirm his leadership.
The rest of the seats went to smaller parties. The Coalition for Europe took 2 seats, far-left IU-ICV 2 seats, Union for Progress and Democracy (UPyD) 1 seat, and Europe of the People-Greens 1 seat.
Voter turnout was nearly 46 per cent, slightly more than in 2004 and one of the highest in the EU, Vega said.
PP representative Antonio Lopez Isturiz said European conservatives had achieved "a very good result" which would allow them to have a "decisive" impact on "new European policy."
Socialist representative Leire Pajin described the result as "reasonably positive" for her party.
The electoral campaign had focused on domestic politics, with the main parties engaged in mutual mud-slinging that made commentators describe the campaign as one of the most dismal ever seen in Spain.
The European elections came as Spain was struggling to rise out of its deepest economic slump in 60 years.
The effects of the international crisis have been worsened by the meltdown of Spain's key housing sector.
The Bank of Spain says the economy will shrink 3 per cent this year, while the European Commission expects the 17 per cent unemployment - already the union's highest - to climb to about 20 per cent in 2010.
Recently, however, the government has said it has seen small signs of the economy beginning to recover.
The PP had been unable to take full advantage of the government's economic troubles because of a corruption investigation involving some of its regional leaders.
The main parties took little interest in European issues, instead focusing on domestic matters such as mutual corruption accusations or the government's plans to liberalize abortion.
The candidates even squabbled over whether Zapatero used military planes to travel to electoral rallies, or whether former conservative premier Jose Maria Aznar had too many government-paid bodyguards.
Spain's main parties had sunk into a quagmire of "gratuitous attacks and insults," making citizens lose confidence in the
