National
Manuel Fraga says that Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón is to continue as Mayor of Madrid
By h.b. - Jan 19, 2008 - 5:51 PM
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As the row in the Partido Popular over the decision to exclude the Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, from the candidate lists for Congress in the general election, the leader of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, said on Saturday that the Mayor of Madrid is not going to leave politics, although he did deserve an apology.
'Now was the time to look to the future', said Rajoy, speaking on Onda Cero radio.
Rajoy’s words came after a meeting between Gallardón and the P.P. Senator and founder of the party, Manuel Fraga. Fraga is considered to be Gallardón’s political mentor, and after the meeting he told the press that Gallardón would be remaining in politics and would be taking an active part in the general election campaign. Indeed it is planned for Gallardón to share a platform with Rajoy at a conference on education being held tomorrow, Sunday.
Speaking to the newspaper ABC, Fraga however did have words of criticism for Esperanza Aguirre, the P.P. President of the Madrid region, whose ultimatum is believed to have played a part in keeping Gallardón off the lists.
‘She did not want Gallardón to be presented’, said Fraga, ‘And this attitude does not appear praiseworthy to me. It’s like when she presented a book in Madrid which revealed that she is not called Esperanza (hope) in vain. She has held many posts and worked very well, but the last 50 pages are excessive because they are just to attack Gallardón’.
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Gallardón himself told the press, ‘You are not going to hear anything from me different than a call of support for Rajoy’.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has said that the P.P. are improvising after the Gallardón crisis, and he forecast that the new signing, the ex President of Endesa, Manuel Pizarro, and the ‘neo-conservative recipes’ would turn out to be a failure.
Minister for Tax and the Economy, Pedro Solbes, has challenged Pizarro to a debate on the economy. Solbes criticised Pizarro’s economic ideas, describing them as ‘too simple’ and said he wanted the debate to clear up the question as to what Pizarro really wanted.
The socialist party, PSOE, has been meeting today with 11 of its so-called wise men and women to analyse their election manifesto. It’s understood that the main outline of the document is being drawn up today, with approval of the official manifesto coming in a party conference planned for the 26th and 27th of January.