National
71 percent of Partido Popular voters want to see primary elections for party leader
By h.b.
Apr 27, 2008 - 10:03 AM

The El Mundo newspaper published a poll of Partido Popular voters, carried out by the Sigma Dos organisation, which showed that 71% wanted to see the party leader chosen in primary elections. The poll also made it clear that the real challenger to the leadership of Mariano Rajoy in the rank and file of the party does not come from the regional president of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, but from her bitter rival, the PP Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón.

Less than half of those polled thought that Rajoy was capable of beating Zapatero in 2012, with just 25% saying that he should be the candidate. 25% said the candidate should be Gallardón and 15% said Aguirre.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the 37th PSOE party congress on Saturday - Photo EFE

Meanwhile the Prime Minister has been talking about the economic slowdown. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has admitted that unemployment is set to rise, and that some of the weakness of the country’s growth is being seen. He called on the 37th PSOE party congress to be brave in this legislature which would be, he claimed, the one of change.

‘Even the worst forecast for unemployment in the next four years will always be better than what it was under the PP in their last legislature’, he said. Zapatero said the fight against unemployment would be the priority of the government in this legislature with the idea of mobilising the potential of the diverse sectors of economic activity to compensate for what he described as the ‘serious adjustment’ in construction.