Candidates float ideas ahead of official start to election race

With just less than a week before the official campaign for the November 20 general election is set to begin, the two main contenders for prime minister were with their loyal followers on Monday as they continued to embark on their separate stumps.

In Murcia on Monday, Socialist candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba once again criticized his opponent Mariano Rajoy in front of a group of the party faithful for not wanting to tax the rich. "Rajoy is in love with austerity. But if he is so in love why doesn't he ask wealthy families for help?" he said.

Rubalcaba insists that the wealth tax, which was re-introduced this year for two years running, must be kept intact so that the additional money can go to help create jobs.

Just one day after he released a preview of the Popular Party (PP) platform, Rajoy continued to release "his ideas" in piecemeal on Monday before other PP members, which include pledges of fiscal reforms for new startup companies that hire workers.

He said that he wants to reduce the size of the public sector by eliminating and merging ministries and agencies "to ensure a more transparent and efficient administration." However, Rajoy didn't say whether this measure would lead to the layoff of government workers.

The campaign officially gets underway on Friday.