For Spain's Next Prime Minister, Rigor Is Watchword

Mariano Rajoy is used to waiting on the sidelines.

It has been a month since his conservative Popular Party won a landslide victory in Spain, setting the stage for his installment as prime minister next week. During that time, he stood by while José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the departing Socialist prime minister, defended Spain's interests in Brussels in crucial European Union negotiations to bolster the euro.

That patience is a quality that Mr. Rajoy has been honing since 2003, when José María Aznar, Spain's previous conservative prime minister, handpicked him as his successor. Instead, Mr. Rajoy was kept out of office by Mr. Zapatero, who defeated him in elections in 2004 and 2008.

In fact, since winning on his third attempt, on Nov. 20, Mr. Rajoy, 56, has shown little inclination to grab the spotlight. He has avoided interviews and refused to disclose his choice of ministers before his formal presentation to King Juan Carlos next Wednesday. He has also blurred rather than clarified some previous policy statements, notably on how fast indebted regions needed to clean up their finances.

"He has so far barely addressed the major problems of this country," said Jaime Pastor, professor of politics in Madrid at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. Such a cautious approach, Mr. Pastor suggested, reflects "his personality, which isn't inclined to show forceful leadership, as well as his awareness that, whatever his aims, there's very little room to maneuver in this European crisis."

The agreement last week in Brussels did little to reassure investors and relieve the pressure on the borrowing costs of Spain and other ailing euro economies. But moves by the European Central Bank to provide unlimited loans to banks appear to be paying off, at least for now, with Spain pulling off a successful bond auction on Thursday at rates well below earlier offerings.

Still, all eyes will be on Mr. Rajoy and Spain next week to see what medicine he can prescribe to fulfill a pledge made on the night of his electoral victory that Spain "will stop being a problem and instead form part of the solution" to the euro debt crisis.

One of the few issues that Mr. Rajoy has already began tackling is an overhaul of the labor market. He recently told employers and labor unions that he wanted a rapid change in the collective bargaining and other labor laws that critics say have contributed to a Spanish jobless rate of 21 percent, double the European average.

In September, while on the campaign trail, Mr. Rajoy published an autobiography, "In Confidence." In it, he recalled his studious and quiet youth, following a father who was climbing the ranks of Francisco Franco's judiciary. The father's duty tour included a stint in León, where Mr. Rajoy went to a school that was later also attended by Mr. Zapatero.

"I believe that I'm a lot like my father," Mr. Rajoy wrote. "He is a perfectionist, somewhat introverted and very cautious."

Until only weeks ago, even Mr. Rajoy's future residence had been an unknown, because he had previously indicated that he would not move his family to the Moncloa government complex to avoid further upheaval for his two young sons and wife, Elvira Fernández. In the end, however, Mr. Rajoy was persuaded to switch to the Moncloa for financial, security and logistical reasons.

Mr. Rajoy studied law and qualified as a land registrar, like two of his other three siblings. Meanwhile, he survived a car crash in 1979, after which he started to grow a beard to hide his scars.

As Spain was transitioning from dictatorship to democracy, Mr. Rajoy jumped on the political bandwagon, as a successful candidate in the first regional elections in his native Galicia in 1981. He represented a conservative party that was a precursor to the Popular Party and was then headed by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a fellow Galician who was a minister under Franco.

Mr. Rajoy moved to Madrid in 1990 to work alongside Mr. Aznar, who had just succeeded Mr. Fraga as the Popular Party's leader. In 1996, Mr. Aznar won the first of his two premiership mandates, thereby also propelling Mr. Rajoy to minister of public administration. It was one of a handful of government portfolios held by Mr. Rajoy until he took over from Mr. Aznar to lead the party in its 2004 election debacle, just days after devastating terrorist bombings at the Atocha train station in Madrid.

After losing again in 2008, the cigar-loving Mr. Rajoy survived as party leader, while also rejuvenating his inner circle.

"Rajoy has learned the importance of surrounding himself with people whom he can absolutely trust, which is also why he's taken his time over picking his new government team," said a former party official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

The financial crisis, rising unemployment and the wounded property market started to sink Mr. Zapatero and the Socialists in opinion polls. Mr. Rajoy's personal ratings remained below those of Mr. Zapatero until the start of this year.

"The big difference between Rajoy and Zapatero is that Rajoy feels the need to be respected rather than loved," said Fernando Fernández, a professor at the IE Business School in Madrid. "He's neither creative nor really charismatic, but he has determination and great rigor when it comes to implementing decisions, however unpopular."

Some regional Popular Party leaders have not waited for Mr. Rajoy to take office to carry out their own austerity measures. María Dolores de Cospedal, who heads the regional government in Castilla-La Mancha, this month announced a 3 percent salary reduction and longer working hours for 70,000 civil servants, which, when coupled with other cuts, should yield savings next year equal to 25 percent of the region's budget.

The squeezing in Castilla-La Mancha is "a good indicator" of things to come nationwide, Mr. Fernández suggested, with Mr. Rajoy "much more likely to cut spending than raise taxes" to help meet Spain's deficit-lowering targets.

In contrast to 2004, when a fresh-faced Mr. Zapatero took power, Spain will now be led by a veteran, who has sat in Parliament for three decades and has a long ministerial track record. On the other hand, Mr. Rajoy also comes to the top job without mastering English and with limited international experience, at a time when Spain's financial viability could hinge upon E.U. decisions taken in Brussels or Frankfurt rather than Madrid.

On the night of his Nov. 20 triumph, Mr. Rajoy told supporters that Spain "needed to be respected in Brussels" and stick to its deficit-cutting pledges.

The latest economic data, however, suggest that Spain is already sliding back into recession amid rising unemployment.

During his obligatory military service, Mr. Rajoy was assigned cleaning duties and put in charge of the supply of detergents. The experience, he recalled in his book, taught him the importance of taking "pride in a job well done," however basic, and also made him "a real expert" in cleaning. Such skills may again prove useful, given the economic mess that Mr. Rajoy is about to confront.