Spain Votes to Stay in NATO, Interior Minister Projects

MADRID — Spaniards voted today to continue their country’s 4-year-old membership in NATO, endorsing the pro-European policy of Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, the interior minister said.

Jose Barrionuevo told reporters that official projections based on partial returns showed 53.4% of the vote was favorable to the government’s decision to keep Spain in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

He said with 38.4% of the total vote counted, 38.6% of the ballots cast had gone against the referendum, 6.8% of the ballots had been blank and 1.2% of the vote had been disqualified.

He said the projections showed 58% of the country’s 28.8 million registered voters had participated in Spain’s third referendum since the return to democracy in 1977.