Madrid - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday secured sufficient initial support for the government's 2010 budget despite heavy criticism of his economic policies. Zapatero heads a minority Socialist government which depended on other parties to take the draft budget to the amendment phase of the process.
The Socialists secured the support of Basque nationalists and the Canaries Coalition, despite the opposition of all the other parties which criticized Zapatero and Economy Minister Elena Salgado.
The main opposition conservative People's Party (PP) accused Zapatero of not being capable of steering Spain through its current recession and of making the middle class pay for his lavish spending by raising taxes.
The draft budget foresees a deficit of 5.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010, and would cut spending by 3.9 per cent to 185 billion euros (280 billion dollars).
