PM: We must focus on nation's woes, not party's

The year before the next general elections should be spent "talking about Spaniards' problems, not about the Socialist Party's problems," said Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at a Socialist convention in Zaragoza on Sunday. Essentially, the leader wants candidates in May's local and regional elections to stop pressuring him to say whether he will run for a third term in 2012, a possibility Zapatero has so far refused to either confirm or reject.

Some regional leaders consulted by this newspaper admitted that if the prime minister decides to run again, he will find undivided support within his party; yet the idea remains in the air that if he decides not to, then a majority of Socialists would support his deputy, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.

What some regional leaders fear is that May's ballot will become a plebiscite on Zapatero's future.

"There are elections in 2011, and general ones in 2012, but I call upon you, upon the entire party and all the candidates, to make pacts, agreements and consensus-seeking the priority." said Zapatero, who on Wednesday will officially present an agreement reached late last week with the unions on the thorny subject of pension reform.

The government is seeking support from the main opposition Popular Party to get the reform turned into law.