Rajoy sent Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría to represent him. | GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images Spain’s Rajoy ridiculed for delegating TV debate The PM’s conservatives are in the lead but no party is seen winning more than 30 percent.

MADRID – Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sent his deputy to a TV debate Monday night provoking ridicule from his rivals for the December 20 elections, which are shaping up to be the closest contest in Spain's democratic history.

Rajoy, who appears to believe he has nothing to gain from directly confronting his younger, more photogenic challengers, sent Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría to represent him. His opponents made sure his absence was noted.

The debate was watched by more than 9 million people, more than any other TV show so far this year.

Pablo Iglesias, head of leftist Podemos (We Can) party, used his first exchange in the two-hour debate to send the conservative leader an ironic greeting and Pedro Sánchez, leader of the Socialist Party (PSOE) which is the traditional rival of Rajoy's Popular Party (PP), said the prime minister should have resigned early in his mandate due to corruption cases.

For a moment, even Sáenz de Santamaría seemed to agree that Rajoy should have turned up to defend himself, when she left unchallenged an imputation that Rajoy was gutless.

"I thank you for defending here what Rajoy hasn't dared to defend himself," said Albert Rivera, leader of the centrist Ciudadanos (Citizens), which was founded in 2005 in Catalonia and is expanding rapidly at the expense of the PP.

Spain has been dominated by the PP and PSOE for decades, but most opinion polls now have four parties competing for 10-30 percent of voter intentions, with the winner expected to try to form a government with less than 3o percent of the vote.

The latest poll by GAD3 for newspaper Abc showed Rajoy's PP leading with 28.2 percent, the PSOE second and losing ground on 21.5 percent, Ciudadanos third on 17.9 percent and the far-left Podemos fourth, but gaining, with 16.6 percent.

Sáenz de Santamaría stuck to Rajoy's narrative of an economic recovery fostered by the conservative government, saying Spain was on the brink of bankruptcy when the PP took power and was now generating employment. She targeted Ciudadanos, which is poaching disenchanted PP voters, and warned against a post-electoral "pact of the three losers."

"Talking is easy, governing is difficult," she said, contrasting the young challengers' lack of leadership experience with the maturity of 60-year-old Rajoy.

Socialist Sánchez, who according to polls is being squeezed between Podemos and Ciudadanos, tried to present himself as the only credible alternative to Rajoy, labeling Rivera as a right-winger who will support the conservatives as soon as the campaign is over and dismissing the pony-tailed Iglesias.

"We know Podemos can't win the elections," he said. "Only if the PSOE wins can there be a true change".

Iglesias, however, appeared to outmaneuver Sánchez, chastising him for corruption. The Podemos leader said he agreed with much of what Sánchez said, adding: "But when you [the PSOE] are in government you don't do what you say".

Iglesias, who was rated as the debate's winner by more than 10 online polls, appealed to voters' emotions while targeting traditional PSOE voters. Ciudadanos' Rivera, risked falling flat at times by trying to strike a balance between the PP and the PSOE and presenting himself as a moderate consensus builder who could forge alliances across the political spectrum.

Rivera judiciously balanced his attacks on the right and the left, saying: "Rajoy, who is not here today, said he would lower the personal income tax and then he raised it," and later: "The PSOE left this country with 24 percent unemployment."

Rajoy refused to take part a four-way TV debate last week, when the organizers marked his absence with an empty podium. He has only agreed to debate one-to-one with Socialist leader Sánchez next Monday.