Question: Out on the doorsteps, what issues have you found are concerning the public?

Jill Evans: The main issue is the Iraq war and the situation there, that is the single biggest issue that people have raised with us.

And overwhelmingly they are against the war. Even people who were initially supportive of the war have now changed their minds because of the disaster they have seen unfolding in Iraq.

So although it wasn't one of the issues that we had set out in our agenda that we wanted to campaign on, it clearly has become one of the issues because that is the thing people have raised with us most often.

Question: Do you regard it as a shame that one of the biggest opportunities to talk about the work of the EU is being overshadowed by the war?

Jill Evans: In one sense it is a shame, but then it is very difficult to discuss European issues.

When we set out our manifesto, it was very much a campaigning manifesto dealing with key themes like food safety, our opposition to GM foods, local procurement and fair trade issues, workers' rights, job creation and so on. These kind of themes people don't automatically associate with Europe, but mostly stem from Europe and Europe plays a key part in all that legislation.

So we did have a very clear manifesto and a very clear campaign, but it became apparent that people were using this election to express their views on Iraq.

And I can understand that because millions of people were protesting and marching against the war last year and they were ignored. It is inevitable really that this is the only opportunity they have to really show the government what they feel over this.

Question: How much extra support do you think Plaid Cymru might pick up as a result of its opposition to the Iraq war?

Jill Evans: I think it could be quite significant, but it is very hard to quantify.

Our opposition to the war is well known - we were opposed to the war from day one and we campaigned against it long before the war actually happened.

I went to Iraq last February just before the war on a humanitarian visit and so we were very involved with the whole issue right the way through, and we will be after the election is over on Thursday.

Obviously we hope that our position will have gained us support but it is in line with our whole tradition and our principles as a party.

We have always been very active internationally and we have got a very strong tradition of working for peace.

We hope that the kind of principles that we believe in will gain us support, but you can't take a stand on an issue like this for that reason.  In fact, I think in the National Assembly elections last May, our opposition to the war probably lost us votes. But public opinion has changed since that time.

Question: Does the party feel its stance on Iraq has been vindicated by events there since the war ended?

Jill Evans: Absolutely. It gives us no pleasure to see what is happening, but many people warned of what would happen and unfortunately we have seen that coming into effect.

Question: In terms of media coverage, the UK Independence Party campaign has attracted a lot of attention. Do you think they are having much of an impact in Wales, or are they seen as more of an English nationalist party?

Jill Evans: I've come across a few people who say they are voting for UKIP because they are very anti-European, but it will be interesting to see how many votes they take from the Tories.

I don't think they would take votes from us because people who would vote Plaid Cymru would generally be fairly pro-European.  We see Wales very much in a European context.

It will be interesting, they could pick up some of the anti-European vote even in Wales. But they have been very low profile and have had no campaign as such, so I can't see them making much of an impression.

Question: Does the hostility of much of the media to Europe make it hard to campaign on a broadly pro-EU platform?

Jill Evans: Yes it does. We haven't campaigned on an EU platform. We have been talking about issues that affect people's every day lives and then explain how they are related to Europe, rather than talking about Europe itself.

But one of the problems generally is that people have very little information about Europe or the way it works, so I think people generally don't know what the parliament does in relation to the Commission or the Council of Ministers and they are very unclear what the role of the EU is. The legacy of that is not just in the tabloid press, where we see a lot of silly stories about Europe, but in the press generally there is a negative attitude.

It doesn't help because we are not uncritical of the EU - far from it in fact, we are very critical of the EU even though we are pro-European - but it then makes it very difficult to have a proper debate about the problems we have with Europe.

When people dismiss Europe as being totally irrelevant or just thinking up legislation which is going to make their lives more complicated, all the usual terms in which Europe is talked about in the press, when you are faced with that then you really miss a lot of the real issues.

And it is not the bureaucracy or the red tape, but there are issues of democracy and accountability and waste which are then not dealt with properly because we then don't have that sensible debate and discussion.

Question: Is Plaid giving its backing to the proposed EU constitution?

Jill Evans: We haven't formed a final view yet and we won't do so until the final draft is published, which is after the elections.

We support the referendum, I do feel the referendum could help in encouraging people to take more of an interest in what Europe does.

In principle we have been for many years supportive of the idea of having a written constitution for Europe, and of a bill of rights which is now the Charter of Fundamental Rights which we very much welcome as part of the treaty.

There are other aspects of the constitution that we welcome like the recognition of the regional level of government, the support for cultural and linguistic diversity which means for the first time we could get European funding for Welsh language projects, and there are various other projects which we think are an improvement on the current treaties.

But on the whole the constitutional situation remains unchanged in that the powers are all in the hands of member states, and as a party that wants to see Wales having more of a voice in Europe then for us that is a problem.

It may be slightly better than the constitution that we have now, but it is certainly not the kind of constitution that we would like to see - it is not the Europe that we want.

But we will have to look at the final draft and whether Wales would be better of or worse off, and we will make our decision based on that.

Question: Because of enlargement, Wales is losing one of its seats in the European parliament at this election. Is Plaid Cymru about to lose one of its seats?

Jill Evans: It is a lot more difficult to win two seats out of four. We have been having a tremendous response over the last few months campaigning right around the country, and it is not impossible for us to win two seats. Our own internal polling has put Labour and ourselves very close together.

So of course we would like to win two seats, and we will do everything we can to win two seats and maintain our vote.

Question: Are you optimistic about how the campaign has gone?

Jill Evans: I am optimistic about the support we have had and the support we will get.

The overwhelming message of the campaign has been from voters who won't vote Labour this time, and we have come across thousands of people who have said that to us over the past four or five months.

We have been saying to those people that if they really want to protest against the New Labour government then they should do it by voting for Plaid Cymru. By electing two Plaid Cymru members of the European parliament they will be making a much more effective and much louder protest than if they just don't vote at all.