The leaders of Spain's two most important labor unions the Union General de Trabajadores (UGT) and Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO) on Monday gave their support for the candidacy of the Spanish capital city of Madrid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

Madrid, which is trying for the third time in succession to host the Olympics, is competing against Tokyo and Istanbul, with perhaps one of the major factors against Spain being the current economic crisis with 6.2 million people out of work and the threat of protests disrupting and possible preparations in the future.

Although the 2020 Games are a long way away, the International Olympic Committee will decide the host for the 2020 Games in Buenos Aires on Sept. 7 and so it is good news for Madrid to have the public support of the unions lead by Candido Mendez and Ignacio Fernandez Toxo.

The pair met with the chairman of the Madrid Olympic bid and president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, Alejandro Blanco in which they also agreed to set up a commission to investigate how many jobs could be created by a successful bid.

"We support the bid because of the international and worldwide projection it means for our country and even more so in a moment in which Spain's image is being damaged by different events," commented Mendez.

"It could be a sign that things are changing in our country. The Games should be a catalyst for growth and as things are now, there are signs that Spain could be in a very complicated situation in terms of unemployment until 2018," he continued.

Toxo, highlighted that his union had supported the bid from the start: "it should be a project for all of the country and one which has the backing of Spanish society. Spain needs something to give an impulse to the economy," he said, looking back on how the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, together with the Expo in Seville, had, "given a huge leap forward to a country which accumulated backwardness in economic and social terms and which gave us an injection of self esteem which would help in the moment we are going though now," he added, commenting that the Barcelona Olympics had created 300,000 jobs directly and many more indirectly.