IANS/EFE | 20 Feb, 2012
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned about the "hard road" that remains to be travelled before the economic crisis can be overcome.

He delivered the closing address at the governing Popular Party's 17th congress in Seville Sunday.

Rajoy said that the crisis "still has not touched bottom", but he expressed confidence that Spaniards will accept the necessary sacrifices and the course marked by reforms, including labor reforms, despite the protests that have occurred.

The prime minister took advantage of his speech closing out the conference to paint the economic panorama lying before Spain, expressing his continued commitment to be a realist and not deceive anyone.

"The problems are extremely serious and the measures will not be pleasant," Rajoy said before warning that, above all, his government will continue acting "without hesitation and without losing a single minute".

Rajoy firmly defended the labor reform in the face of the demonstrations that were held Sunday throughout Spain, for which he expressed his respect although he said that the modification of the labor law is "fair, good and necessary" and is what five million unemployed Spaniards, almost 24 percent of the workforce, were expecting.

He said he was confident that the public knows that the current government has a solution to the crisis and are not going to "slow down the task".