Debate summary and apology

First of all I have to apologise for not have blogged live the debate, but wasn't able to watch and write at the same time on my laptop.

Secondly, Zapatero, I believe, has won the debate tonight. It felt great to have presidential debates back in Spain and frankly that only has happened under Socialist governments.

The debate started slowly, with the candidates observing each other tricks, and then moved into top gear when entering the issue of ETA's terrorism and inmigration. Rajoy has gone really tough and made a massive mistake by accusing Zapatero of betraying the terrorist victims again (he mentioned it in Parliament many times before).

As the debate was moving forward, Zapatero started liking himself. He sorted through the economic section quite well showing graphs and hard data on growth and employment. The second section on social policy, Rajoy knew he couldn't beat Zapatero's government on social policy with the new dependency and equality laws as well as pensions and minimum wage. He moved quickly into inmigration, a populist right wing topic, talking about crime, illegal inmigration and public services. Zapatero here did well in two things, he avoided getting into the inmigration debate by sticking to the long list of Socialist social policy achievements and then adressed the issue of inmigration reminding Rajoy on how many inmigrants fight and die in the Spanish armed forces. The third section on foreign and security policy, Rajoy went into overdrive accusing Zapatero of betraying the victims. Talking heads on the radio and TV are all mentioning how that was a massive mistake by Rajoy reminding voters of his nastiest side that some were already forgetting. Zapatero did well not accepting the proposition that he betrayed them and then reminded voters of Rajoy's alliance with Bush and his support for the Iraq war. In his final statement Rajoy gave a very strange speech on a little girl growing in Spain that didn't connect well in its imagery neither in its supposedly aspirational tone. Zapatero did a similar speech but it connected better and his delivery was good, avoiding reading and using a calmed but firm voice.

On a personal level, Rajoy failed to support the Ebro water plan that my local conservative government in Murcia has always defended and won many votes out of. Zapatero forced him to state if he was going to propose its construction again and he failed to say yes. I hope my fellow Murcians will take note of his statement when casting their vote on March 9.

More on flash polls as they come out in a bit.