“Four years of socialist rule will be enough”

FORMER Prime Minister José Maria Aznar predicted that at the next general election, Spaniards will say that four years of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) have been “too much”, as happened in the Balearic regional elections, after four years of the left wing coalition. He said that under the previous Balearic government, led by socialist Francesc Antich, with the support of the United Left-Greens, Majorcan Socialist Party and the Majorca Union party, residents “discovered what loss of prestige is, the creation of divisions in society, the loss of opportunities and presence inside and outside Spain, and what it is to provoke confrontation just for the sake of it.” That is why, he added, after four years, people said it was “too much,” and voted for the Partido Popular.
Aznar was in Palma to sign an agreement as president of the Antoni Maura Foundation, with Balearic leader Jaume Matas. He also took time out to sign copies of his book Retratos y Perfiles at the Book Fair in Plaza España. The former PM said that “a party is an organisation of people, who work, take part in elections and develop a politic task at the service of certain ideas and principles. Without ideas and principles, politics is only sterile opportunism, just holding on to power, which is what we are seeing clearly in Spain today.” The Foundation he presides is named after Balearic politician Antoni Maura “one of the greatest statesmen of contemporary Spain” and Aznar said that after a few years of inactivity it was now set to become a centre of political thought and social debate. It will organise three seminars in Majorca this year.