Madrid  - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, 49, had never had it as rough since taking office in 2004.

Not only is the conservative opposition having a heyday lambasting him over the country's persistent economic slump, the criticism appears to have spread to the ranks of Zapatero's own Socialist Party.

Even the usually supportive daily El Pais has turned against the prime minister.

However, the sudden change of attitude of the powerful daily is being attributed partly to a backstage battle over digital television rights, rather than just Zapatero's economic policies.

Zapatero's first term is remembered largely for his liberal social reforms, such as legalizing homosexual marriage and promoting women's rights, while the second term has stood out so far as an economically disastrous one.

The global crisis and the collapse of Spain's key construction sector plunged the country into its worst economic slump since the 1936-39 civil war, with the European Commission expecting the economy to shrink 3.7 per cent this year.

The 18 per cent unemployment is the highest by far in the EU, and Spain is expected to recover from the crisis slower than other comparable EU economies.

The government has resorted to what have been criticized as ad hoc short-term measures, such as large-scale public works to boost employment, which are contributing to public deficit rising to an expected 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year.

The government is planning to shore up the budget by raising 15 billion euros (22 billion dollars) in extra tax money, a policy which critics see as crippling consumption and making the recession last even longer.

Disagreements over public spending allegedly prompted the recent resignation from parliament of Pedro Solbes, Zapatero's former economy minister and a former heavyweight in his cabinet.

Two other former ministers also left their seats in parliament, while El Pais mounted an unexpected campaign against the prime minister, claiming he had become so authoritarian that his collaborators no longer dared to question his decisions.

The Socialist Party, however, closed ranks around Zapatero, who responded to critics with a strong leftist rhetoric.

The government defended the downtrodden against "the powerful," said Zapatero, who has resisted calls to make the labour market more flexible and layoffs easier.

El Pais meanwhile continued its campaign against the government, slamming it for having no "rigorous strategy" and for resorting to "improvisation" to combat the crisis.

Spain's biggest daily had been a staunch government supporter, and its change of attitude was not believed to have been motivated by purely journalistic reasons.

El Pais publisher Prisa Group has been angered by the government's decision to grant pay digital television rights to its rival Mediapro, which launched the football channel Gol Television to compete with Prisa in the lucrative digital market, the conservative daily El Mundo quoted government sources as pointing out.

Despite the political and media criticism of Zapatero, polls indicate that his public support has not fallen far below that of the conservative opposition People's Party (PP), the reputation of which has been tarnished by corruption scandals.

In any case, prime ministers' second terms tended to be worse than their first, and Zapatero was no exception, El Pais columnist Enrique Gil Calvo observed.  dpa