Zapatero holds up social pact as sign of new confidence
PM chairs signing ceremony with unions and business leaders as Popular Party snipes from the sidelines
Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has presided over the signing of a broad social pact with the country's labor unions and employer groups aimed at restoring the Spanish economy to the path of solid and sustainable growth after its worst recession in living memory.
Despite having reached agreements with the key economic actors over the past days on issues such as pension reform and a plan to boost youth employment, Wednesday's ceremony at the prime minister's La Moncloa residence was somewhat undermined by the absence of political party other than the ruling Socialists. The main opposition Popular Party (PP) has said it will participate in debates over the final text at the congressional committee stage, but that it will try to overturn the agreement as it stands.
Undaunted by the PP's stance, Zapatero claimed that the pact is a "message of confidence in Spain and the EU," adding that the European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy, had called him to offer his congratulations on closing the agreement.
Among other initiatives, the pact overhauls the state pension system, extending the retirement age from 65 to 67 in some cases, and relaxes the 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 on Tuesday.
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 eager to liken the agreement to the so-called cross-party La Moncloa Pacts in 1977, laying the ground for the restoration of democracy.
"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.
