Madrid, Aug 31: Ending weeks of speculation, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar named Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as his successor to contest next year's elections, Aznar's office said Saturday. Rajoy, seen as Aznar's right-hand man, has managed the Conservative popular party's landslide victory in 2000 and was the point man for last year's prestige oil spill.

Trained as a property registrar, the 48-year-old politician has held four cabinet posts since 1996, including the Interior Ministry and the President's ministry.
The son of a politician in the Conservative northwestern region of Galicia, Rajoy was elected local councilor when he was 20. He became Galicia's Deputy President 11 years later before entering national politics. "And so, political posts kept dropping onto him like early figs from a fig tree,'' newspaper columnist Manuel Vicent wrote recently in the Spanish daily, El Pais.

The other two main contenders for Aznar's office were Finance Minister Rodrigo Rato and Jaime Mayor Oreja, the party's leader in the Basque country.
Aznar revealed his decision to his three top candidates and party Secretary-General Javier Arenas over lunch on Saturday, according to agency, Spain's national news agency. Ruling party members and Socialist opposition leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero praised Aznar's choice.
"Mariano is loved by everyone, a magnificent candidate,'' Finance Minister Rato told media.
Rajoy's name is expected to be formally proposed to the ruling party's national executive committee Monday and ratified by a broader 600-member panel on Tuesday.
Bureau Report