PM backs Rubalcaba to lead party

MADRID: Spain's governing Socialists chose on Saturday a veteran candidate to lead their party in a parliamentary election in 2012 after being beaten in local polls last weekend.

At a meeting of the Socialist Party, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero supported the candidacy of Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, saying he was the party's best chance for victory at the election, due by March next year.

"He is confident and is capable of generating confidence and credibility that the party needs right now. I must remind you that he is a sprinter. If he's capable of running the 100 metres in just over 10 seconds, then he's capable of winning the elections in 10 months," Zapatero said.

The choice should be formalised in an all-party vote in June.Zapatero, whose popularity has sunk in opinion polls, announced in April that he would not stand for another term.

He also took the blame for last weekend's election results, when voters punished the government for austerity measures and a struggling economy that has left one in five out of work.

"In the May elections the serious defeat we have suffered is above all my responsibility because it was the direct result of the answer to the economic crisis," he said.

Yet he said the decisions he took, which included slashing civil servant wages and labour and pension reforms, were needed for Spain to avoid falling into crisis.

Zapatero also said the government would continue working to create jobs and make sure the country does not slip into a debt crisis that has already led Portugal, Ireland and Greece to be bailed out.

"If we keep the ability for Spain to finance itself, make changes and maintain stability the recovery will come."

Copyright Reuters, 2011