Spains opposition leader vows tough measures

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Spains opposition leader vows tough measures

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Spains opposition leader vowed a rigorous programme to get the country out of economic crisis.

08 October,2011 09:40 pm

The leader of Spain’s main opposition conservative party on Saturday vowed a rigorous programme to get the country out of its economic crisis if elected in legislative elections in November.Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy, the front-runner in the election, set out the broad lines of his policy in a speech closing his partys annual convention in Malaga, southern Spain. He paid particular attention to the countrys record unemployment levels, running at 20.89 percent of the workforce, and promised to make job creation a priority if elected.“The plight of the five million Spanish people who want to work and cannot and the anguish of the one million households all of whose members are unemployed worry me, as it does everyone,” he told delegates.“Our country is going through a serious social, economic and institutional crisis which is going to oblige us to make a great effort in future,” he said. But Spain can and will emerge from the crisis, he argued. On Friday, Fitch Ratings slashed Spain’s sovereign credit rating by two notches, blaming regional government spending, weak economic growth and the eurozone debt crisis. That decision pushed the countrys already expensive borrowing costs even higher.Rajoy has denounced the outgoing socialist government, in power since 2004, for leaving “the worst legacy that any government has ever left its successor”.