Spain on Saturday mourned a local politician whose killing by Basque separatists overshadowed Sunday's general elections, raising questions over whether the attack could influence the close poll race. ( dpa )
Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega and other politicians and dignitaries attended a funeral mass in the Basque town of Arrasate for former Socialist councillor Isaias Carrasco.
The 42-year-old was gunned down by a member of the militant Basque separatist group ETA on Friday.
The killing interrupted the electoral campaign, which had been due to conclude at midnight, and prompted thousands of Basques to attend silent protest rallies on Saturday.
Protests were also staged in several large cities outside the Basque region.
The elections were expected to become a close race between Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists, who have had a slight lead in polls, and the opposition conservative People's Party (PP) headed by Mariano Rajoy.
All the parliamentary parties, trade unions and employers' organizations Friday condemned Carrasco's killing in an apparent show of unity, but rifts soon began to appear.
The PP, which has accused Zapatero of being soft on ETA, indirectly reiterated its criticism of his failed attempt to negotiate with the group, while Socialist politicians boycotted protest rallies staged by conservative-governed municipalities on Saturday.
The ETA attack evoked memories of the 2004 elections, when Islamist extremists killed 191 people in the bombings of four Madrid commuter trains three days earlier, sweeping Zapatero to power.
The much smaller and more predictable ETA attack, however, was not necessarily expected to influence the election result.
It could encourage some people to vote for the PP, which has a harder line on fighting ETA, but it could also favour the Socialists by mobilizing their voters, traditionally more passive than PP voters, analysts said.
In addition to the government's anti-terrorism policy, the elections have focused on the economy.
Spain had one of the fastest growth rates of the euro zone for more than a decade, with the creation of 600,000 annual jobs trimming unemployment from 22 per cent in 1996 to less than 9 per cent.
Job creation continued under Zapatero until recently, when the job market began shrinking, partly because of a meltdown in the construction sector.
Inflation is at a 12-year high, with indebted citizens struggling to cope with rising food and fuel prices.
The government attributes the problems mainly to external factors such as the US mortgage crisis and rising oil prices, while the PP slams the Socialists for mismanagement.