Only one elected office per Socialist, says Rubalcaba

The Socialist candidate in the November 20 general elections, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, will propose on Tuesday a new rule for his party members to prevent them from concurrently holding elected offices at both the local and national levels.

Defending a "one position, one salary" principle, Rubalcaba is expected to tell Socialists that they if they are already serving in office- such as mayor of a municipality- they will not be able to run on the party slates for deputy or senator and expect to hold both offices.

The Socialists have been very critical about the Popular Party's Maria Dolores de Cospedal, the Castilla-La Mancha premier. After winning the race in May, De Cospedal continues to serve as senator and PP secretary general, earning a salary of over 200,000 euros.

Rubalcaba also plans on proposing what he calls "the number 351st seat in Congress" to allow ordinary citizens to participate in debates when certain measures are being discussed.

On Monday, Rubalcaba confirmed that he will raise taxes in the banking sector and resurrect the wealth tax for the country's richest families with the hopes of raking in some 2.5 billion euros that will be allotted to creating jobs, especially for young people.

In an interview with SER radio, Rubalcaba estimated that the new wealth tax will bring in 1.4 billion euros annually with at least an additional 1 billion euros coming in from the tax hikes for financial institutions. "We will spend the money to create jobs," the candidate confirmed without going into detail.

No Cabinet decision

The wealth tax was abolished in 2008 by the current government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero which argued that it was an unfair burden on the middle class who, unlike the country's wealthier citizens, could not find ways to get around it. The Cabinet has been studying raising the exemption to 1 million euros but hasn't made a final decision whether to present it before the general elections.

Rubalcaba will present his proposals for the hikes to the Socialist executive committee during its regular weekly meeting on Tuesday. The ruling party's committee is gearing up for its policy conference to be held between September 30 and October 2 when party members will begin drafting its election platform.

Meanwhile, Popular Party (PP) candidate Mariano Rajoy defended the cutbacks being taken by PP premiers in Castilla-La Mancha, the Balearics, Galicia and other regions, describing them as mechanisms to get their economies rolling again. Nevertheless, Rajoy said he didn't believe the reductions in spending are enough to help the regions emerge from the crisis. In a separate radio interview, the PP leader said Spain will need to restructure its economy as well as introduce additional reforms.

Last week, De Cospedal announced drastic budget cuts amounting to some 1.85 billion eurosin Castilla-La Mancha, but said she would not raise taxes or cut back on social services.