Opposition Popular Party offers reluctant support for broad social pact

The government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the country's labor unions and employer groups will today sign a broad social pact aimed at restoring the Spanish economy to the path of solid and sustainable growth after its worst recession in living memory.

Despite having persistently denigrated the Socialist administration's efforts to overcome a crisis that has left a fifth of the labor force out of work and markets doubting Spain's ability to service its debt, the opposition Popular Party (PP) reluctantly also looks set to bow to political expediency and back the accord. Among other initiatives, the pact overhauls the state pension system and relaxes rules on collective labor agreements.

The PP took pains to emphasize it was not involved in the negotiations on the pact and would adhere to it merely out of a sense of "responsibility." PP congressional spokeswoman, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, said she only found out about the details of the agreement from EL PAÍS' website. "I've just downloaded it," she said.

Sáenz de Santamaría said there was nothing to celebrate in the agreement, which cuts pension rights, and is the product of the "failures of Zapatero's economic policies."

The accord represented a much-needed triumph for the under-fire Zapatero, with the Socialists expected to liken the agreement to the so-called cross-party La Moncloa Pacts in 1977, laying the ground for the restoration of democracy. La Moncloa is the name of the Spanish prime minister's official residence where today's signing ceremony is due to take place.

"These agreements don't merit comparison with the La Moncloa pacts, neither in terms of content nor how they were drawn up," PP's Andalusian baron Javier Arenas said.