PP unveils platform of lower taxes and no formulas

The Popular Party (PP) on Tuesday finally released its proposed electoral platform, which is filled with pledges of lower taxes and more privatizations.

The 212-page document, which was posted on the party's website, doesn't give any details on how the PP proposes to generate more revenue or create more jobs if it were to win the general election on November 20.

The proposed manifesto is also ambiguous over the most sensitive issues ? such as abortion, language in the classroom, and labor reform ? proposing obscure compromises without explaining what they are. It makes no mention of whether it would repeal the 2005 gay marriage law.

As part of his privatization drive, Mariano Rajoy is promising voters to "push legislative reform so that regional and local governments are free to adopt new management styles in public television in order to attract private capital."

While the PP criticized the Socialist government when it outlined its plan to sell off the country's airports, Rajoy's platform defends "the liberalization" of the facilities to the private sector "to compete in managing them."

Rajoy also wants to introduce new rules in granting nationality in which all applicants will be given tests about the country's culture and customs. He has also promised more transparency by keeping public contracts accessible via the internet for ordinary citizens to view.

For his part, Socialist candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said that while Rajoy's platform was vague, one just had to look at what was going on in Madrid's regional PP government to get an idea of things to come. "Rajoy doesn't say what he is going to do, but Esperanza [Aguirre] does," Rubalcaba said, referring to the premier's planned cuts in education and other services.