"We ask for disenchanted Socialists' votes openly and honestly"

The leftwing United Left (IU) coalition does not conceal the fact that it is after the votes of Socialist sympathizers disillusioned with the Zapatero administration. Its leader, Cayo Lara, a former agricultural union chief and veteran of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE), is casting his eyes on this other constituency as though a long-desired treasure had finally come within his grasp.

Question. Six months ago, in local elections, Spain veered sharply right toward the Popular Party (PP). What makes you believe that citizens want leftwing politics now?

Answer. Part of the Socialist Party's constituency feels betrayed and is now considering its options. That's who we are aiming for.

Q. For years it was the Socialists who went fishing for votes among IU's supporters. Have the tables finally turned?

A. The Socialists used tricks to do that. They used an unfair electoral law and appealed to the "useful vote" by screaming "Watch out! The right is coming!" The difference is that we have not created an unfair law. We are openly and honestly asking for the vote of disenchanted Socialist sympathizers. We are saying that we will not let them down. The useful vote to stop the rise of the right in parliament, here and now, is a vote for IU. Every time the Socialists open their mouth to criticize the PP's policies, they'll be told: "You did the same only yesterday." They have no moral authority to be a good opposition.

Q. Is the Socialist Party and the PP the same thing, as you've claimed in your campaigning?

A. Policies are what define them. The vast majority of the Socialists' and the PP's policies coincide - economic measures, the ban on universal jurisdiction, financing of the Catholic Church, the Libyan war. And that's because general policy is set by the EU and it's a neoliberal policy.

Q. So if their policies are the same, why is it acceptable to support one but not the other? Is the difference in the acronyms?

A. We've always been light years away from the PP. The Socialist Party has gradually abandoned social-democratic policies and embraced neoliberalism. During Zapatero's last term, this embrace has been complete. What's more, I believe that either there is an internal revolution in the Socialist Party that produces two different organizations, or else they will be incapable of resolving their situation.

Q. Are you hoping for the Socialist Party to split in two?

A. I think it's already fractured... When social democracy renounces social democratic policies, it renounces principles that will be taken up by other people. What they've done is renounce their essence.

Q. If the next government, faced with a hypothetical risk of a bailout for Spain, asked all parties to support a spending-cut plan, would IU support that?

A. No. Not a spending-cut plan, never. We would support a plan to fight tax fraud and a progressive fiscal reform so that the resources that are now in a few hands - in what is a humiliation for democracies - can revert to the state.