Spain on course to elect a conservative as PM

[WestVirginiaRebel]

UK Guardian:

Spain's veteran conservative leader, who appears to be on course to be elected as prime minister at his third attempt on Sunday, has expressed hope that financial markets will relax their pressure on Madrid.

Mariano Rajoy, leader of the People's party (PP), spoke out as the interest on Spanish debt remained above 6% for a fifth day running, ahead of an election being carefully followed across Europe.

"We hope this [pressure] stops and that people realise there's an election here and that the party that wins has the right to a minimum margin," the PP leader told Onda Cero radio in remarks reported by the Associated Press.

Elena Salgado, the Spanish finance minister, said investors were wrong to target Spain because its overall debt-to-GDP ratio of around 70% was manageable. "We are seeing systematic attacks on our sovereign debt," Salgado told Cadena Ser radio. "Today it is Spain, yesterday it was Italy, the day before that it could have been Belgium, and tomorrow it could be any other country."

Rajoy, who first challenged for the premiership in 2004, is expected to unseat the Socialists on Sunday amid widespread unhappiness with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has announced he will stand down after the vote.

The election in Spain is likely to mark a third change of prime minister in one of the four embattled southern EU countries – Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain – in the space of a few weeks. But Rajoy would be elected by the people, unlike Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti, the new technocratic prime ministers of Greece and Italy.
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Bye bye Zappy! Third time's the charm?