 The European constitution cleared its first major hurdle last night when Spanish voters overwhelmingly endorsed the historic document in the first of 10 referendums that will be held across Europe over the next 18 months. With all the votes counted, 77% of voters approved the constitution, which is meant to simplify the work of the EU. Only 17% of Spaniards voted no and 6% of ballot papers were recorded as blank, said the interior ministry. European leaders, who had hoped that voters in one of the most pro-EU countries would turn out in large numbers, will be disappointed that nearly 60% of the population failed to vote. Turnout was 42%, the lowest in any Spanish vote since the death of Franco in 1975, and below the 45.9% in last year's European parliamentary elections in Spain.
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Joaquin Almunia, Spain's European commissioner, admitted that the turnout was a disappointment. "The fact that it exceeded 40% is positive, although it is true we would have liked a larger turnout," he told state radio. But José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's socialist prime minister, who gambled by holding the first referendum in the hope of impressing France and Germany, hailed the result. "I feel very satisfied that 14 million Spaniards went to vote," he said soon after the results were confirmed. "Today we Spaniards made European history because our vote is a message directed to the rest of Europe's citizens, who were waiting eagerly for our response." One in 10 voters in Spain, which has benefited by £60bn since joining the then EC in 1986, said they understood the constitution. |