As Spaniards prepared to go the polls to elect a government for the next four years, candidates for the main Socialist opposition told rallies that Aznar's economic boom was a fake one, only benefiting a privileged few. The Socialists say the centre-right Popular Party's economic policy has lined the pockets of Aznar's personal friends who now head once-public companies privatised in the last four years. “The government ... has not distributed wealth, inequalities have increased and, meanwhile, a few of Aznar's chums have more power and money than the government that named them,” Socialist candidate Joaquin Almunia said.