Rodríguez Zapatero´s reformist stage has ended. Even his pressure on Angela Merkel could make the president have to deal with a real decree related to budget cuts to the Council of Ministers. The point would be to stifle the tumultuous markets. According to sources close to the Prime Minister´s office, this is the intention that Zapatero communicated to the CiU parliamentary spokesperson Josep Antonio Duran I Lleida in a meeting held last Tuesday.
In the final stage of his second term in office and after having announced that he will not run for office in 2012, Zapatero alone should decide when he steps down from Moncloa.
This depends on Spain´s economic situation and the stability of the EU. And of course he will try to avoid doing harm to his party when stepping down. If the markets continue at their current rate, Zapatero will step down before ordering more cutbacks.
If the markets turn, he will wait for the PP barons, who are pressured by the difficult public accounts situation and the need to cut spending, to disprove from within that he will run for Prime Minister again.
Duran I Lleida confirmed that in the worst possible case, if the crisis in Greece gets more complicated, Zapatero will not hesitate dissolving the Parliament and holding elections in November.
