Zapatero plays guessing game ahead of 2012

Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has already decided whether or not to run again in the general elections of 2012, but only two other people know what that decision is, he told journalists at a Christmas event in La Moncloa, the seat of government.

"This is not the right moment," he said to justify his silence.

Zapatero did specify that the two people who know about his intentions are his wife, Sonsoles Espinosa, and "a party person" whose name he also refused to reveal. The only other Socialist Party government member present at the Christmas party was his deputy, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, whom many pundits consider his natural replacement after being appointed Zapatero's right-hand man in a recent Cabinet reshuffle.

Rubalcaba told journalists that he is not the second person who knows about Zapatero's plans, fueling speculation that the mystery man might be former Socialist leader Felipe González or Public Works Minister José Blanco.

Zapatero would also not say when exactly he made his decision, although he insisted that "this is not the right time" to tell the public.

The speaker in Congress, Socialist José Bono, said that Rubalcaba "has more power than it seems" and that he could be "the electric hare that tricks the other hares into running." Before that, José Blanco had mysteriously stated that Rubalcaba was "a false hare."

Rubalcaba, a party heavyweight who was already a key Cabinet member under Felipe González in the 1990s, was appointed interior minister in 2006 by Zapatero's administration, a position he retains even after becoming deputy prime minister and chief government spokesman on October 21 of this year.