Rajoy accuses Zapatero of massaging the figures

May 07, 2010

The president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, insisted today that there is data to suggest that "we are finally starting to climb out of the recession", but his claims did not convince the PP leader, Mariano Rajoy, who accused Zapatero of lying about the figures.

Zapatero's credibility, according to Rajoy, "has reached rock bottom" by not telling the truth about data such as income or deficit, and accused him of doing "monumental damage" to the country's economy.

Zapatero, meanwhile, reiterated that the unemployment rate would not go any higher than 20% and would begin to fall in the second quarter of the year, adding that it is "possible" that the economy actually grew and between January and March, although he admitted that recovery in the labour market was going to "be slower."

The leader of the government and the opposition leader again focussed on the economy in their weekly face-to-face debate in parliament , with Rajoy highlighting several factors including the stock market crash, the increase in public debt and the public debt differential with Germany to justify his attack on the president.

"He is running out of time to do what we must do," began Rajoy, and after listing his opponents failures, added that it was "no different to last week, the week before or the week before that."

Zapatero retaliated by underlining the first increase in state revenues in two years, the rise in social security affiliations and the increase in energy consumption.

The deabte got heated as Rajoy accused Zapatero of "not telling the truth" and said that his credibility to address the crisis "had reached rock bottom", comments that provoked lengthy applause and cheers from the PP benches.