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Rajoy takes the Partido Popular towards the politcal centre
By h.b. - Jun 22, 2008 - 3:36 PM
ALSO SEE : • Ramón Luis Valcárcel reduces the size of his cabinet in Murcia - Sep 26, 2008 - 8:16 AM
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Mariano Rajoy (right) with the previous leader of the Partido Popular, José María Aznar, on Saturday - Photo EFE
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The re-elected leader of the party, told the XVI party congress in Valencia that he needed the support of all present.
In his first speech after being re-elected with 84% of the votes as leader of the Partido Popular at the party conference in Valencia this weekend, Mariano Rajoy told his audience that the P.P. knew how to face a crisis.

In his closing speech, Rajoy used his time to attack the Zapatero administration, and said that Spain needed the P.P. and he called on the party to get down to work tomorrow as what was needed was an opposition capable of putting forward alternatives. Rajoy centred his attacks on the economic problems, and immigration, education and water. He described the party as honourable and efficient managers and said he needed all of them in the fight against the Socialists, despite having excluded those in the party close to Aznar and Aguirre in his new team.

Rajoy has tried to take the party more to the centre as he wished, with the Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, now in a strengthened position, while Esperanza Aguirre, Regional President of Madrid, has seen her views sidestepped. Gallardón said that Rajoy had carried out a job of integration, and the result was very positive. Gallardón and his number two, Manuel Cobo, will mark the new shadow cabinet.
Esperanza Aguirre said she felt like a ‘verse separate from the poem’ and that Rajoy had left out many important people needed for the integration of the party.

The presence of José María Aznar, who arrived two hours late on Friday and gave Rajoy a very luke-warm greeting, was of note, as was Aznar’s decision not to stay for Rajoy’s speech on Saturday. The two gave a more friendly impression as the congress continued.

The new party Secretary General, María Dolores de Cospedal, said that the P.P. was going to be an agile and young party ever more open to society. She said that despite ‘aggressive attempts’ Mariano Rajoy had known how to keep the ship safe. She said the party should be out on the street, far from the offices.

Some Spanish observers think Rajoy can only leave the congress half satisfied as there are some in the party who cannot forgive his new friendship with Gallardón, his punishment of Aguirre, or his differences with the party’s previous leader José María Aznar.

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