Roundup: Citizens hold the key in Spain, but Rivera playing hardball

With less than three days remaining until Spain goes to the polls, it is still hard to predict what a future government will look like following the Dec. 20 general election.

The fact that no opinion polls are allowed to be published from Tuesday onwards means it is hard to predict any late shifts in voter opinion: something important in this election where a high-percent of voters remained undecided a matter of days ago.

The last polls show the governing Peoples Party of Mariano Rajoy expected to win the most votes, ahead of the opposition Socialist Party (PSOE), Center-right Citizens and left wing Podemos, who were all neck and neck in the latest polls.

The feeling in Spain is that Podemos have enjoyed a good campaign and are gaining late support, while Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez's aggressive display in his head-to-head debate against Rajoy on Monday, could have stemmed to flow of votes away from his party following a poor display in the previous week's four-party debate.

It remains to be seen what effect, if any, the aggression suffered by Rajoy in Pontevedra on Wednesday will have, with latest reports informing his 17-year-old aggressor is the son of the cousin of Rajoy's wife, a family closely linked to the PP.

However, with a hung parliament predicted, it looks as if Rajoy will be looking for a political partner come Monday morning and the party which is closest to his ideology is Citizens.

Sanchez has already made it clear several times that he believes Citizens leader Albert Rivera will pact with the PP "because that is what they did following the local and regional elections in May."

Rivera denied that with an interview in the El Pais newspaper on Thursday, in which he said the only option was "if Citizens form the government."

He added his party would not form "a pact with the PSOE, with Podemos and with (Catalan or Basque) separatists," but continued that "the fact is Rajoy has continued closing all of the doors, including with some of his voters, by saying he will not carry out reform."

"I repeat, we are not going to support Sanchez or Rajoy ... I cannot contemplate supporting the investiture of either Sanchez or Rajoy," insisted Rivera.

Rivera said it could be possible to form pacts for certain issues, but his declarations add to Sunday's uncertainty, perhaps even opening the door for an agreement between Podemos, Socialists and the United Left, even though it looks as if they would not win enough seats to form a majority.

It is also interesting Rivera refers to Rajoy and Sanchez rather than their respective parties. That also opens the door to him supporting the PP, but insisting that Rajoy step down as leader as one of his conditions, a theory which has gathered pace with the appearance of Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria on several TV shows, including the four-party debate, instead of the leader of the PP.

Friday sees the last day of campaigning in what has so far been a fascinating election campaign, but what comes of Dec. 20 could yet be more interesting still. Endit