“THE TIME HAS COME FOR CHANGE” SAY SOCIALISTS

SPAIN'S leader of the opposition, the secretary general of the PSOE socialist party, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, told a local election rally in Palma last night that the May 25 elections is the platform from which the socialists will win next year's general election in Spain. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who will today hold talks with the former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook in Madrid, was in Palma to support the leader of the Balearic government and socialist party, Francesc Antich and also give the party's candidate for Mayor of Palma, Antoni Roig, a boost at a mass gathering of the party faithful at Son Moix sports centre. Zapatero believes that the socialist party is heading towards its biggest ever general election victory, bigger than 1982 when Felipe Gonzalez was in power. “The time has come for change in Spain,” Zapatero said “the people deserve and have the right to a government which listens to and respects them,” he added, promising such a government in 2004. Zapatero called on the Majorcan electorate to support the party in its “new era” proclaiming that the party is in “good health” and ready to govern. Zapatero has, until recently, fiercely attacked the prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, for the government's support for the war in Iraq and the Prestige oil catastrophe off northern Spain, however Zapatero's concerns on the election trail are for equal social rights (it was revealed yesterday that Spain has the worst record in Europe for sexual discrimination in the work place with women, on average earning over 20 per cent less than their male counterparts), better care and treatment for families, employment and housing. However, the socialist party leader's whistle-stop visit to Palma last night was marred by the Balearic government pulling the plug on its campaign to encourage people to vote. The Balearic Electoral Board ruled on Saturday, after having received an official complaint from the opposition Partido Popular, that the campaign should be halted, but the government waited until yesterday before suspending its television and radio adverts and stopping its media campaign aimed at encouraging people to exercise their right to vote.