Aznar says Socialists ‘lack conviction’

5 July 2004

MADRID— Former prime minister José María Aznar launched a scathing attack on the new Socialist government Monday saying it was “weak and lacked conviction”.

Aznar, speaking at a meeting Monday in Madrid, said the Socialists would damage Spain’s “stability and well-being” because of its the lack of convictions and weakness “which now they call talent”.

He claimed the Socialists had no clear plan to govern despite being in power for three months.

Aznar said that prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government was “without principals or talent, only opportunism, market and demagogy and this is what they call talent”.

He added that the Socialist government could “commit the biggest error imaginable” if it undertakes a constitutional reform.

Referring to Spain’s agreement to support the formula for a new European Constitution, Aznar said that Spain had voluntarily gone from the “table of the big-boys” to the “table of the boys, where they do not decide anything”.

Spain agreed to the proposed new EU Constitution in a change of stance which critics reduced Madrid’s power in Europe.

But Zapatero claimed that the constitution would give Spain a better position within the EU.

The current PP opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, gave limited support to Zapatero’s deal over the EU constitution.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news