Spanish PM Rajoy still avoiding talk of pactson last day of election campaign

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy continued to avoid talk of post-election pacts on the last day of campaigning ahead of the Spanish general election which will be held on Sunday.

The last opinion polls, which were published on Monday, show Rajoy's Peoples Party as the likely winners of the election, but falling a long way short of the number of seats needed to have an overall majority in the 350 seat Spanish Congress.

That means if he wants to remain in power, he will have to reach an agreement with one of Spain's main opposition parties, either the center-right Citizens (Ciudadanos), the Socialist Party (PSOE) or the left wing Podemos.

A pact with Podemos is virtually unthinkable given the ideological divide between the two, while Citizens' leader Albert Rivera on Thursday once again ruled out a pact with the PP unless Rajoy was willing to discuss Constitutional reform, something Rajoy is opposed to.

With his options therefore limited, the prime minister was asked in an interview on Spanish national radio whether he would consider forming a coalition government with the PSOE, should the Socialists agree to change their leader Pedro Sanchez.

"A pact with the PSOE changing their General Secretary is not on the table ... not with a renewed PSOE or anything of that style," he replied.

With a large number of voters thought to be undecided, Rajoy said his party's aim was "to try and win the general election and to then form a stable government."

"I don't really like to speak about events before they happen," he said, before adding he was "certain" that "PSOE and Podemos will form a pact and Rivera won't support anyone, so the PP have to win the elections."

The undecided voters made calling the election a "lottery," and "at the end of the campaign any party can win votes," according to Rajoy, who refused to rule out Podemos overtaking PSOE to become the second force on Sunday.

With Saturday a "day of reflection" in which campaigning is forbidden in Spain, Friday is the last chance the candidates have get their respective messages across and each party will hold an end of election rally.

Rajoy, Sanchez and Rivera will hold their final acts in the Spanish capital of Madrid, while Pablo Iglesias travels to a rally in what used to be the PP stronghold of Valencia, but where his party now control the Town Hall after winning May's local elections. Endit