Rubalcaba seeks union support against further spending cuts

With his chances of winning the general election on Sunday slim at best, Socialist candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba began courting the left on Monday through a photo opportunity with UGT union leader Cándido Méndez.

Whether to minimize the government's losses at the ballot box or form a solid opposition bloc in Congress, both men share the same idea: the cutbacks that are being proposed by Europe are not the answer to the crisis and much less so those likely to be put forward by the Popular Party (PP) should it win at the polls on Sunday.

At a joint press conference, Rubalcaba and Méndez stated that without investment by institutions such as the European Investment Bank and stimulus policies at home, the crisis will deepen. Rubalcaba has proposed asking Brussels for a two-year delay in meeting deficit-reduction targets that would imply cutbacks of more than 30 billion euros in 2012.

On the same day, United Left leader Cayo Lara held a press conference with CCOO union chief Ignacio Fernández Toxo to put out a similar message: "We have to apply emergency solutions other than those that have been applied up to now, with visible results of failure." PP candidate Mariano Rajoy, meanwhile, held a brief encounter with journalists at which questions were not permitted, thus avoiding scrutiny of his party's possible plans for further cuts if it wins power on Sunday.