Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced on April 2 that he would not seek reelection for a third term in 2012 as Spain’s ruling Socialist Party struggles in the polls.

Current polls indicate that the conservative Popular Party would win the next election with 187 out of 350 seats. The polls show the Socialist Party winning only 124.

Many blame Zapatero for Spain’s current economic problems. By ditching Zapatero, the Socialist Party hopes to lose some of that stigma.

If the Popular Party wins, it will be a boon for the Catholic Church. Zapatero’s government has clashed with the church as it legalized homosexual “marriage,” allowed abortion on demand and made divorce easier.

The Catholic Church has staged several protests and threatened to excommunicate a government member over a law allowing girls as young as 16 to have an abortion without telling their parents.

But the church’s fortunes could soon change. The Popular Party is more closely aligned with the Catholics, and it has promised to repeal the abortion law.

With over 70 percent of Spaniards claiming to be Catholic, the church would appear to have a lot of influence. But 50 percent of Spaniards have never even visited a church, and the church has been powerless to stop Zapatero’s reforms.

The Popular Party hasn’t always done the church’s bidding—it too has introduced abortion laws. But in recent years it has fought against cuts in the state’s funding of the Catholic Church as well as challenged the Socialists’ new abortion law at the Supreme Court.

The Catholic Church is trying to regain its lost influence across Europe. Watch this trend in Spain and the rest of the Continent.