Rubalcaba proposes national pact to foment job creation

Socialist candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said on Sunday that he wants to put together a major national pact for employment by calling all the nation's largest sectors in for discussions, if he wins the November 20 general elections.

Speaking at the close of the Socialist Party's three-day political conference, the former deputy prime minister again pledged to defend equality and public services, and warned that the Popular Party (PP) would reverse the progress made in social policies. "When the PP is elected to government, the road comes to a stop and, more likely, all the changes will also come to a grinding halt," Rubalcaba said.

The Socialist candidate said if elected he will call together all the communities, labor unions, businessmen and political parties to come up with a pact designed for the creation of jobs. The main areas he said he wants to focus on would be small businesses and the self-employed.

To raise funds for job creation, Rubalcaba reiterated his intentions to keep the wealth tax intact and to introduce a special levy for banks and other financial institutions.

The wealth tax was re-introduced last month by the Cabinet but will only remain in effect during this year and next.

"Doesn't it seem sensible to look for special revenues to help us piece back together Spain's job sector?" he asked party members. He told the Socialist faithful that each sector should have a different plan.

"You have to create different employment policies for each social sector. We are not going to promise that we will create millions of jobs but yes, until we emerge from this crisis, we will be on your side ready to provide assistance," he said.

Rubalcaba also wants to promote equality for women, including encouraging parity on boards of the big firms. He said that the Socialists need to win these elections to, among other things, help erase the impression that women were being relegated to low positions on the party slates. "I am not trying to make policy solely for women; I want to make policy with them." Then he repeated a phrase he told a group of women on Saturday: "I don't want you on our side, I want to take up your own side."

With the Socialists trailing the PP in some latest polls by as much as 15 percent, Rubalcaba encouraged party members to keep fighting: "I am not going to give up," he said.

Among other proposals Rubalcaba wants to introduce are a 10-percent tax hike on tobacco and alcohol (excluding beer and wine) with the revenue going to help finance public healthcare. Rubalcaba said that some ¤1 billion could be generated, adding there would have to be guarantees that the regions use this money exclusively for health care costs. "Where did they [PP] get the idea that to help the economy you have to cut public services? If they believe that is right, then it is social injustice."

Still, Rubalcaba acknowledges that one of his biggest goals during the campaign will be to explain how he intends to finance healthcare.

In a gesture to the 15-M protest movement, which is demanding changes in the way candidates are elected, Rubalcaba said that he will propose reforming the electoral law to allow voters to change the positions of candidates on the party slates. The slates won't be completely open, as they are for senators, but they will be "unblocked" so that voters can make any changes they want to put certain names above others.

Another electoral law change Rubalcaba is proposing is to allow Spanish citizens who reside abroad to elect four senators to represent them. The PP has complained that the Socialists are resurrecting this proposal, which had originally been presented by the opposition.

Representation of Spanish citizens abroad would only occur in the Senate, however, and not in Congress.