The landslide victory of the center-right Partido Popular (PP) at Sunday’s general elections in Spain is expected to slightly improve relations between Israel and Spain but will not lead in a noticeable improvement in Spanish public opinion.
Mariani Rajoy’s Peoples Party swept the ruling Socialists from power after eight years, winning 186 of the 350 seats in Parliament, compared with 110 for the ruling party’s candidate Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.
That’s the worst result for the Socialists in more than three decades.
An Israeli official quoted by the Israeli newspaper said Spanish public opinion and the Spanish press are among the most anti-Israel in Europe.
"Spain under Rajoy won’t be Italy under Silvio Berlusconi, or Germany under Angela Merkel. It will be better for us, but the best scenario is that it will be like France under Nicolas Sarkozy," the official said.
Spain voted earlier this month to admit Palestine as a full member of UNESCO, the United Nations education and cultural body.It was also in the group of EU countries that were in favour of the Palestinian UN statehood bid.
Israel’s former ambassador to Spain Raphael Shutz, who left his post last July, had denounced the anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic attitude of the Spanish public public opinion.
"I take with me the hatred and the anti-Semitism that still exist in Spanish society, and which I experienced personally," he said.
A poll released by the Spanish government in 2010 found that one of every three Spaniards holds negative views of Jews.
According to Israeli officials, outgoing Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero "was not a friend" and was "very close to pro-Palestinian elements in Spain."
Zapatero’s predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, who is also from the victorious Partido Popular, is known as a strong supporter of Israel. Last year, he founded the Friends of Israel Initiative to fight attempts to delegitimize Israel in Europe.