Election campaign enters final stretch

Rajoy and Rubalcaba hold big rallies in Valencia, Zaragoza

With less than a week until Spain elects a new government, the two major candidates for prime minister held dueling rallies in Valencia and Zaragoza on Sunday, while the leaders of the minor parties continued to focus on trying to capture the undecided vote.

Socialist Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba warned supporters in Zaragoza that new governments – especially those of the center-right – do not bring an end to crises. “Changes of government are not the solution,” he said, adding that the country’s economic policies “need to be revised because they are not giving us the results we need right now.”

“We need to formulate our next policies, we need to jump-start the economy. I will go to Brussels to fight and argue, not take notes like Mariano Rajoy will,” he said.

In Valencia, Rajoy was given a rousing welcome at a Popular Party (PP) rally held at the city’s bullring. For the first time, the PP leader expressed his confidence that he will win Sunday’s elections.

“I think that we are going to win the elections. In fact, I believe it and I know it,” he said.

Polls show that the PP may win by as much as 15 percent over the Socialists.

In Madrid, leaders from the Union Progress and Democracy (UPyD) platform called on undecided voters to give them a chance. “These elections are the last opportunity we have to change things in Spain. If we don’t act now, they will come from outside of Spain to change the policies for us,” said Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, the number two on the UPyD slate.

via Election campaign enters final stretch · ELPAÍS.com in English.