Rubalcaba calls for rethink of delegations

Socialist prime ministerial candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said on Tuesday that the delegations governing in Spain's provinces are "superfluous," and that their role must be "profoundly" revised.

"[The delegations] form part of a 19th-century structure that we need to redefine," Rubalcaba said in Santander on Tuesday. "If the delegations want to carry on doing what they do now, I think they are superfluous."

The provincial delegations are intermediate institutions between municipal town halls and regional governments, and have a limited remit. Their main role is to distribute funds among small municipalities for various expenses and investment.

In response to Rubalcaba's words on Tuesday, the campaign director for the Popular Party, Ana Mato, said that the opposition favored a "restructuring" of all public administrations, rather than "simply reducing" the role of the provinces.

Mariano Rajoy, the prime ministerial candidate for the PP, which now governs in the majority of Spain's delegations, has laid down a plan to slim down public institutions if he wins the November general elections in order to avoid overlaps of power and achieve a more efficient and economical government.