Lisbon, May 13 (IANS/EFE): Spain will emerge stronger from the economic crisis and will return to prosperity, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said ahead of the Iberian Summit.

The crisis has had a "tremendous social impact", Rajoy said in comments e-mailed to Portugal's Lusa news agency.

It is "logical and symptomatic of the good health of democracies" that there be a "social response to many of the political measures taken to allow an exit from the crisis on solid and stable foundations", Rajoy said.

Politics, however, "is not the problem but the solution to the current crisis, which requires great efforts and sacrifices to allow a return, as quickly as possible, to the levels of prosperity and employment that our societies deserve", Rajoy said.

"We are now in a period of adjustment, of transition, but democracy, along with our socioeconomic model, will emerge strengthened," Rajoy said.

Rajoy and Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho will take part in the 26th Iberian Summit in Madrid Monday.