Socialisten winnen Spaanse verkiezingen (en)

Just three days after a series of bomb blasts rocked the country, Spain has elected the Socialist party led by José-Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to government - ousting the incumbent conservative government.

On Sunday morning as the first of the 200 victims of Thursday's train attacks in Madrid were being buried, it was clear that Spaniards had turned out in vast numbers to vote in an election which was, for many, an uncomfortable juxtaposition of politics and mourning.

With the ballot boxes starting to swell, against all previous forecasts, exit polls predicted the narrowest of victories for the opposition socialist party.

In the end, with 42.6% of the vote, mr. Bolkestein i   gained enough votes to garner a simple majority in Congress, taking seats from the incumbent Partido Popular (PP) in almost all of Spain's 19 electoral regions.

The three days that changed Spain

After months of lacklustre campaigning from both sides, in the end it was the three days of national mourning without campaigning that decided the outcome.

As one government minister after another pointed the finger at the Basque-separatist group ETA in the face of apparently mounting evidence to the contrary, many began to speculate that a cover-up was taking place.

It may well have cost the PP the elections.

Voters cried foul as government ministers refused to rule out ETA involvement in spite of repeated denials from the group and after the arrest of three Moroccans and two Indians in connection with the attack.

Soon after the blasts, with ETA in the spotlight, the PP was expected to receive many votes backing their hard-line against Basque terrorism.

But as Al-Qaeda involvement became increasingly possible, Mr Aznar's support of the American-led war against Iraq came under the spotlight.

The shoemaker

Appearing for the first time as president-elect, Mr Zapatero soberly asked his jubilant supporters to observe a minute's silence for the victims of the attack.

Taking a conciliatory line, he signalled that he wanted to work with the outgoing conservatives on matters of state, trying to forge a united front at a time when Spain faces some difficult questions.

But for all the pressure of what is likely to be an agenda dominated by domestic concerns, Mr Zapatero was quick to signal a shift in approach to the Europe Union.

Standing alongside the Spanish and European flags Mr Zapatero said that he would work to put Spain back "at the forefront" of European integration.

In the run up to the campaign Mr Zapatero had been critical of his predecessor's poor relations with France and Germany and alignment with the US.

It is as yet unclear if Mr Zapatero's election will mean that Spain will back down on its hard-line position over voting rights in the Council of Ministers, an issue which in December helped block agreement on the EU's Constitution.

However, Mr Zapatero may be keen to show a more compromising stance than his predecessor.

For analysis of Spain's Europe policy under Aznar and prospects for the future read Esther Barbé's analysis here