The challenger: "I don't need to campaign against Zapatero; all Socialists are to blame"

Popular Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy is placing such faith in Dolores de Cospedal that the 45-year-old candidate to head the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha is actually trying to play down expectations of a historic victory over the Socialists (PSOE) in that region.

Question. It would appear that the regional elections are being decided right here in Castilla-La Mancha. Is it all or nothing for the PP in this race?

Answer. No, the PP has lots of possibilities in other regions and capitals. Of course, I am the party secretary general and that is why the race in Castilla-La Mancha is, shall we say, more entertaining. For the PSOE it's symbolic because it has ruled the region for 30 years. But the PP's victory does not rest exclusively on what happens here.

"Castilla-La Mancha needs a change after 30 years of the PSOE; it has such potential"

"I won't cut services; we can privatize the TV station and look at public agencies"

Q. Is your political career at stake? Would you be able to take a second defeat?

A. I will take whatever my party wants me to. But the truth is, I've never looked at it that way. I am not in politics to make a career of it. This is not forever; it's not the leitmotiv of my life.

Q. The campaign is being presented as a plebiscite on Zapatero's administration, even though he is not running. Why is that?

A. The PP is not presenting any plebiscite. These are regional and local elections. In my campaign, I talk about the politics of Castilla-La Mancha, where jobless figures are worse than the national average. We have the largest budget deficit (6.4 percent), the third-largest debt, and we are the next-to-last region in terms of per capita income. I don't need Zapatero to fuel my campaign. Barreda [the current Socialist premier] is even worse than him. But we cannot forget that Zapatero's policies have been backed by the entire PSOE.

Q. Your strategy focused on Zapatero. Were you thrown by his announcement that he is leaving?

A. He's not leaving. He is still the prime minister and the secretary general of the PSOE. The policies of these last seven years were not Zapatero's, but those of the entire government, of the Socialist Party and its regional leaders. I don't think his announcement had an influence. There was a slight shift in the polls the first few days, but they've since been eclipsed.

Q. The PSOE complains you are Spain's best-paid politician and that your salary is three times that of the prime minister.

A. I've already talked enough about that. The PSOE is always trying to bring it up, but I won't go there. I declare my income [223,000 euros a year from the Senate and PP]. Few people [...] make such an open statement; in fact I think nobody does. I don't need to offer any further explanations.

Q. And the people of Castilla-La Mancha understand that?

A. People understand it when you have nothing to hide. I am in the same position as all the people with the same job who came before me. I have two roles. A big deal is being made out of this because I am a candidate, otherwise nobody would be talking about it; I'm 100-percent certain of it. I don't know whether some people don't like the fact that I work twice as hard as other people, or whether it's because I'm from Castilla-La Mancha, or because I'm a woman, and I certainly hope it's not that.

Q. Why and to what effect do you want to govern the region?

A. Castilla-La Mancha needs a change after 30 years of PSOE rule. It has great potential [and] a privileged geographical location, yet 30 years after the advent of democracy it has lost ground, comparatively speaking. It's as though it was laboring under the weight of a slab of stone that prevented it from growing.

Q. You say you will find accounting gaps and that you will make some cuts. If you won't say where, wouldn't it be logical to think it will be in health and education, which represents 80 percent of the region's budget?

A. There's no reason why it should be logical to think that. The current government is very inefficient at running things.

Q. In Catalonia, the nationalist CiU bloc said the same thing yet when they won the elections they proceeded to make cuts in health and education.

A. The government of Castilla-La Mancha has already made cuts in health and education. I will not cut back social services, but I do know, from the information we have, that cuts could be implemented at many levels.

Q. Name one, so readers can get a sense of what you mean.

A. For instance, privatizing the regional television station of Castilla-La Mancha, which costs around 300 million eurosa year. Castilla-La Mancha has hundreds of public agencies.

Q. How many people would you fire from those agencies? Dozens, hundreds, thousands?

A. To answer that, I would need to see the accounts. We will carry out audits, find the excesses and start taking steps. I am clear about the fact that we will not scale back basic social services.