MADRID – Spain’s incumbent prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said Friday the Socialist government should approach the future in a new mood of “humility and austerity”.

Zapatero said the government needed to consider the citizens of Spain.

In a speech to the federal committee of the Socialist PSOE party, Zapatero demanded that this new mood of austerity should not just be reflected in terms of spending.

The government should also consider how it wields power, its forms and manners.

The Socialist leader also referred to the autonomous regions of Spain and signalled that they were at the point where they were ready to advance.

He said that this should happen after a suitable dialogue and within the bounds of the Constitution.

The reference to the autonomous regions of Spain will be seen as a signal that the Socialists made be about to cede some power to nationalist ambitions in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news