Who are the main candidates in the Spanish elections?

[arcos]

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of the Socialist Party hopes to end eight years of conservative government after promising to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq and address unaffordable housing and job insecurity at home. Zapatero, 43, trained as a lawyer before becoming the youngest Socialist lawmaker in parliament at 26. He rose to national prominence in 2000 when he took over a party stung by a crushing defeat to Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party and still struggling with corruption scandals from its time in government. Zapatero's deliberately quiet, moderate and consensual style has been credited for a revival in the Socialists' fortunes.




Mariano Rajoy of the ruling conservative Popular Party is the prime minister's hand-picked candidate to succeed him. Before Thursday's bombings, the bearded 48-year-old led opinion polls. Trained as a property registrar, Rajoy rose from the obscurity of local politics in his native northwestern Galicia to the limelight of national office. As interior minister, Rajoy was Aznar's point man in the fight against the Basque separatist group ETA - initially blamed in the attacks. If elected, Rajoy says he'll stick to Aznar's formulas for economic growth and battling ETA. Internationally, he backs Aznar's support of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and has given no inkling of any plans to heal wounds Aznar opened with neighbor France and Germany over the war.


text from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3857482,00.html

[arcos]

1. kick n/t

[AP]

2. I guess that's why they want to make it look like ETA were the culprits.