Spain Won't Delay Aid Request for Elections

 

Mariano Rajoy won't delay a possible request for aid from the ECB to boost his party's chances in regional elections, European Affairs Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo said.

"We will take a decision taking into account the interests of the Spanish people and the euro zone - it has nothing to do with the elections," Mendez de Vigo said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. "Those governments who play on regional or national elections and take decisions just because of them always lose, so we don't care about it."

Rajoy, who faces elections in the Basque Country and his home region of Galicia next month, abandoned his 2012 budget- deficit target earlier this year after he delayed setting spending plans until after a vote in Andalusia.

Spanish bonds rallied last week after ECB President Mario Draghi said the central bank will buy unlimited quantities of government debt to lower borrowing costs for peripheral countries so long as they accept the conditions in return.

The 10-year yield fell to 5.552% today, the lowest since April. It rose to 5.729% at 2:17 p.m. Madrid time.

Rajoy said last week he needed time to study the ECB proposal, resisting pressure to say whether he would seek a rescue. "When I have anything new to tell you, I will say so," he told reporters.

The voting in Rajoy's home region of Galicia, where his People's Party governs, and in the Basque Country, comes on Oct. 21.

Mendez de Vigo said that euro states should help each other out at times of stress as Spain has helped Germany in the past, without specifying how that aid was delivered. He also said the country's banking system was not compromised by the problems at some "specific" savings banks.

"The Spanish banks are in excellent health," he said. "Investors can really rely on the Spanish banking system and the Spanish government."