PP insinuates government not coming clean on finances

Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was fending off flak from a number of different fronts on Monday as an EL PAÍS editorial urged him to stand down and call early elections, and the opposition Popular Party spokesman on the economy questioned the veracity of the administration's financial accounts.

In an interview with radio station Cadena SER, Cristóbal Montoro said it is possible that if the PP wins the next general elections it will find drawers full of "unpaid bills, as has happened in the regions."

Montoro was referring to claims earlier this month by Castilla-La Mancha regional premier and PP secretary general Dolores de Cospedal that the outgoing Socialist government had left a much bigger budget deficit than it had officially maintained, with unpaid bills amounting to 1.742 billion euros, up from 700 million euros at the end of April. The PP won power in the region in May elections.

"We're already used to surprises," Montoro said. The PP official's basis for his claims stems from complaints by suppliers to the government about delays in payments. He attributed the financial problems facing the regions to a lack of control by the central government. "The boss is not there," he said.

The publication on Monday of an opinion piece by EL PAÍS chairman Juan Luis Cebrián, entitled This unbearable lightness, together with the editorial The end of a political cycle - both of which urge Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to call snap elections instead of waiting until March - has prompted fresh debate in Spain's political arena.

The editorial stated that the Socialist leader's "incapacity for management, the meager results of the barely initiated reforms, added to the impotence of a lame-duck legislature, augur a further, irremediable deterioration that has to be cut short as soon as possible."

In public, the conservative PP as well as leftwing groups and nationalists all endorse bringing the elections forward. Rather more privately, so do relevant economic leaders, who note the need for a strong government leader in La Moncloa.

But Elena Valenciano, the Socialist Party's campaign director, expressed her annoyance in a radio interview on Onda Cero, calling these articles "very inopportune, especially this week," in reference to a summit of EU leaders this coming Thursday against a backdrop of market onslaughts against the sovereign debt of Spain and Italy.

Valenciano said that "introducing political uncertainty is not in Spain's best interests, nor is it in the EU's." Ramón Jáuregui, the presidency minister, added that "at this time there could be nothing more unstable or harmful to Spain's solvency and credibility than to call early elections."

But opposition leader Mariano Rajoy, of the PP, on Monday reiterated his calls for just that. "With elections, things will go better and we will once again be included among the best."

Other Socialist leaders, such as Basque premier Patxi López, noted that the decision is entirely up to Zapatero.

On social networks such as Twitter, politicians and analysts echoed EL PAÍS' line of thought. "Even EL PAÍS is showing Zapatero the way out," said Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPyD), a moderate party founded by former Socialist Rosa Díez.

Many Twitter users drew attention to the fact that both EL PAÍS texts were published on July 18, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the military uprising against the Second Republic, which led to the Civil War.