Back to the back-burner

ALBERTO RUIZ-GALLARDON’S Abortion reforms are becalmed in the summer doldrums.

The Justice minister said recently that the Bill would go through before the end of the summer.  He then added a throwaway “but the summer ends in September.”

It’s likely that Mariano Rajoy now regrets the hugely unpopular demolition of the existing Abortion law that offended only a minority of hardliners.  That unpopularity, palpable on the street and amongst the Opposition parties, also lurks within Rajoy’s own Partido Popular.

Ruiz-Gallardon and vice-president Soraya Saenz de Santamaria are at daggers drawn over the reforms, insiders say.  The September clue could hint at still further delays but unless the Bill is done and dusted by the end of this year, it will be surely be parked in 2015, an election year.

The political cost could come high, but it would be paid by the Justice minister alone.  And that, possibly, would not upset everybody within the government.