Spain´s Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba stepped down from government on Friday to concentrate on his coming election campaign to succeed unpopular PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
General elections are due by March next year, but are widely expected to be brought forward to October or November.
"I've told the prime minister my desire to quit the government and to do it immediately," Rubalcaba told reporters at the government's weekly cabinet news conference.
Zapatero has already said he will not run for a third term in office. The popularity of the ruling Socialist party has declined under his leadership, due to high unemployment and austerity measures.
Rubalcaba said he wants to concentrate on his campaign. No successor to his positions has been named.
The Socialists, or PSOE, are scheduled to officially confirm that Rubalcaba is their candidate for the general elections, which the opposition centre-right Popular Party is expected to win by a comfortable margin.
Voters shunned the Socialists in local polls in May, leading to the PSOE's worst results at municipal level for decades. The PSOE is trailing the PP by 10 to 14 percentage points in opinion polls.
