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José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (born August 4, 1960 in Valladolid) is the President of the Government (Prime Minister) of Spain. The party he leads, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), won the general election on March 14, 2004. Actions of his government have included withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq, legalizing same-sex marriages and giving amnesty to over 700,000 illegal immigrants in Spain. He also presided over the Spanish Parliament's approval of the controversial Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia.

Personal life and youth

Origins and youth

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was born in Valladolid on August 4, 1960, to Juan Rodríguez García-Lozano, a prominent, successful lawyer, and Purificación Zapatero , but he grew up in León whence his family originated. He came from an affluent family with a long tradition of left-wing politics. He has an elder brother, Juan Rodríguez Zapatero .

His paternal grandfather, Juan Rodríguez Lozano, was a Freemason and a Republican captain executed by the Nationals during the Spanish Civil War, when his son (Zapatero's father) was eight years old .

His maternal grandfather, Faustino Zapatero, was a pediatrician and a liberal Spanish bourgeois who died in 1978. His maternal grandmother was conservative and right-wing . Zapatero born in Valladolid because his mother wanted to be accompanied by her family, who lived there, not only out of love but also because of the medical profession of her father.

Zapatero's family has influenced him intensely. When he was a youngster, he used to talk about politics and other issues with his father and brother until late. As he has declared, "since I can remember it, I used to participate in long night conversations with my father and brother about politics, law or literature" . He says that his family taught him to be "tolerant, thoughtful, prudent and austere" .

His grandfather's ideals and fate played an especially important role over his father, brother and himself and his political beliefs . As an example of this, his father's real second surname is García but he added Lozano to honor his late father Juan Rodríguez Lozano.

The memory of the Captain Lozano was also kept alive by the holograph will he wrote 24 hours before facing the fire squad, which can be considered a final declaration of principles. The will was composed of six parts. The first three bestowed his possessions to his heirs. In the fourth, he asked to have a civil burial and, in the fifth, he requested his family to forgive those who had executed him and proclaimed his belief in the Supreme Being. In the sixth, Zapatero's grandfather asked his family to clean his name in the future () as his creed only consisted in his love for peace, for good and in improving the living conditions of the lower classes. .

Zapatero started to study at the religious primary school "Discípulas de Jesús" in September 1966. In September 1970, he entered the "Colegio Leonés", the only private lay school in León at the time.

When he was a child and late in his twenties, his friends used to refer to him with a nickname: Papes. It was inspired in the name of a shoes brand called Hush Puppies that used in its advertisements a puppy with swollen cheeks similar to those of Zapatero when he was a child. The pronunciation of Puppies is similar to that of Papes in Spanish.

At the time, he signed his school works with a strange mark: PC, probably inspired in the acronym of the Communist Party (Partido Comunista in Spanish).

He studied Law at the University of León, where he graduated in 1982. His performance as a student was above average before his pre-University year. Then it worsened, and his grades in that year and in the University were essentially mediocre. According to his brother Juan: "He did not use to study much but it made no difference, he went along successfully" .

He admired as a University student the agrarian reform by Mao Tse-tung and favored the Soviet Regime .

After graduating, Zapatero worked as a teaching assistant of constitutional law (really a paradox) in the University of León until 1986 (he continued working some hours a week with no pay until 1991). He has declared that the only activity that attracts him besides politics is teaching or, at most, academic research.

In October 1991, his contract was canceled by the new rector of the University of León, Julio César Santoyo, after the legal counselors of the University considered Zapatero's jobs as a teaching assistant and an MP were incompatible (he had been elected in 1986). The legal counselors of the Spanish parliament had considered the contract valid, however.

Zapatero has never served in the army, although the military service was compulsory in Spain until recently. He received successive deferments because of his conditions as a university student, a teaching assistant and a MP, until he was finally exempted.

Zapatero enters politics

Zapatero attended his first political rally on Sunday August 15, 1976. It was a meeting organized by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) in Gijón. Political parties had been legal since July 21, 1976) but the Socialist Party was not legalized until February 1977. The speech of Felipe González, the PSOE leader and future Prime Minister of Spain, who took part in the rally, exerted an important influence on Zapatero. He said, among other things, that "the Socialists' goal was the seizure of power by the working class to transform the ownership of the means of production" and that "the PSOE was a revolutionary party but not revolutionarist or aventurist , as it defended the use of elections to come to power". .

Zapatero and his family had been traditionally attracted by the Communist Party as it was the only really organized before Francisco Franco's death in 1975. But, after the famous political rally in Gijón, they and, especially, Zapatero started to believe that the Socialist Party was the most probable future for the Spanish left. At that time the Socialist Party was rebuilding its infrastructure in the province of León after being almost banished after the Spanish Civil War .

In 1977, the year of the first democratic elections after Franco, Zapatero supported both the Communist and Socialist Parties. He posted posters of both.

He enrolled in the PSOE on February 23, 1979. The impression Felipe González caused upon him in 1976 played a fundamental role in his decision of joining the party. In 1979, the PSOE had not yet renounced Marxism as its ideological base (that happened later in 1979). He told nothing at home, because he was afraid his parents could discourage him for considering him too young.

In 1982, Zapatero became head of the socialist youth organization in the province of León. That year, in July 1982, Zapatero met Felipe González at the summer school "Jaime Vera" and requested him to make a "left turn" in the Socialist political program for the general election of October 1982 . González answered advising him to abandon his conservative viewpoint.

In 1986, he was elected to represent the province of León in the Cortes (Parliament), becoming its youngest Member after the election held on June 20. He was the number two in the Socialist list of the Province of León. In the next elections (those 1989, 1993, 1996 and 2000) he was the number one. In the elections of 2004 he ran for Madrid as the number one.

In 1987, he instigated, as one of the main leaders within the Socialist Party of León, a pact to obtain the mayoralty of León after the elections held that year. The previous mayor, Juan Morano, had occupied the post since the first local democratic elections in 1979 as his independent party had always been the most voted, even in the 1987 elections, when it obtained 12 seats. The Socialist Party (9 seats) drew the deal with Alianza Popular (antecessor of the current People's Party), which had four seats, and an extinct center party called Centro Democrático Social (2 seats). The finally elected mayor belonged to Alianza Popular. Zapatero and his allies justified the civic pact, as it was called by its supporters (or the cynic or hatred pact, as was denominated by its opponents) by stating that it was necessary to change the "negative dynamics" of the city, to "normalize" its democratic life, to end its "bad relations" with other institutions (like the Regional Government of Castilla y León), to lessen the social tensions "promoted" by the independents, to eliminate the supposed system of patronage, etc. Months later the pact was broken by pressures from the Regional Leadership of Alianza Popular and Juan Moran became mayor again .

Zapatero defined himself as a '"left-wing conservative"' at the time. He explained that he meant that, for sentimental reasons linked to his family, he came from that Left that lost the Spanish Civil War and that what had happened between 1936-1939 (the time span of the war) and 1939-1975 (Franco's dictatorship) had a very important significance for him. He further explained that the Spanish Left needed to modernize and that "we are finding it difficult to accept the need for the Socialist Party to change many of its ideological parameter and overcoming our own conservatism".

In 1988 he became Secretary General in León after a hard, complex internal fight for power that ended a long period of divisions and internal confrontation. In fact, before the provincial conference held that year, Ramón Rubial, then national president of the PSOE, asked the party in León to foster unity. Zapatero was elected as Secretary General in that conference, what meant a new time of stability .

In the 80's and 90's, the Socialist Party consisted of two sectors: the guerristas (supporters of Alfonso Guerra, former vice-president with Felipe González) and the renovators (led by Felipe González). The first group had a stronger left-wing ideology whereas the second was more pragmatic. The division became wider after the General Election of 1993, the last election won by the Socialist Party before José María Aznar's victory in 1996, when the bad results increased the internal enmities. Zapatero never formally joined any of the two groups.

In 1993, the Socialist Federation of León (its acronym is FSL after the Spanish Federación Socialista de León) suffered an important scandal. In some towns in a very short time, the number of members of the Socialist Party increased inexplicably from, sometimes, fewer than ten to more than one hundred. When some of the supposed new members were interrogated by the press, they affirmed to have no idea of anything and that they did not live in the places where they were being registered by the party. It seems that some opponents of Zapatero in León, perhaps with the support of powerful guerristas at the top of the Spanish Socialist Party wanted to increase their influence within it by increasing the number of members in the towns of León favorable to them. Their main aim would have been to take control of the Regional Socialist Section of Castilla y León in the conference to be held in 1994. Zapatero's support for the then Regional Secretary General, Jesús Quijano transformed him into the enemy of the guerristas in the region as the FSL is the most important Provincial Section.

Zapatero was accused himself of irregularities. For example, his enemies, those who were falsifying new memberships, stated that he kept dead people as real members in the sections of the party supporting him. Not only that, in May 1994 a scandal started when two papers, El País and Diario de León, published several articles that suggested the existence of irregularities in his hiring as professor by the University of León and in his keeping the job until 1991. The suspicions of political favoritism were favored by his having been directly appointed without a previous selection process open to other candidates. On May 20, he held a press conference where he rejected every accusation. Zapatero attributed to "ignorance" or "bad faith" the content of the articles and linked them to the internal fight for the job of Secretary General of the Regional Chapter.

In 1994, three regional conferences were going to be held: two to elect the representatives of the party in León for the Regional and National Conference to take place that year, and the 7th Provincial conference where the Secretary General was going to be elected.

Before they started, an agreement between the involved parties was drawn. The new members who did not confirm they had joined the party voluntarily and who did not live in the areas where they were registered would be expelled from the party. Initially 775 and finally 577 new memberships were canceled out of 1160 suspicious.

When the three conferences were celebrated, the tension in them was very high and, sometimes, it was necessary to call the police . All of them were finally won by Zapatero or his supporters.

The National Conference (held after most of the representatives elected in the first León Conference were Zapatero's supporters) was won by the renovators, at that time very opposed to the guerristas. That was positive for Zapatero as the list of false memberships was revised again. Its number grew from 577 to almost nine hundred.

Zapatero was finally reelected secretary general with 68% of the ballots in the 7th Regional Conference held in July 1994, after the removal of the false memberships.

In 1995 new regional and local elections were held. Its results were bad for the Socialist Party in León as they lost four seats in the mayoralty of León and two seats in the regional parliament of Catilla-León. The results were influenced by the bad economic situation and the cases of corruption assailing the party. Zapatero had personally directed the electoral campaign.

In 1996, after the General Election, Zapatero kept his seat at the Congress of Deputies. Next year, in 1997 Zapatero was elected again Secretary General of León and after the national conference held by the party that year he entered the National Executive (the party governing body).

In 1998, the first and only primaries celebrated within the PSOE took place. There were two candidates: Joaquín Almunia and José Borrell. The Regional Chapter of León declared to be neutral. It seems that, unofficially, its leaders including Zapatero, worked harder in favor of Almunia, who was the representative of the renovators and, because of it, opposed the guerristas. Zapatero himself phoned personally (as other leaders did) as many party members as possible to request their votes for him.

On April 24, 1998 Borrell won with 9.6% more votes than Almunia in Spain and 4.6% more in León. It seems that Borrell's image of renovation played an important role in his victory. Borrell's attitude towards Zapatero seems to have been a little colder after Zapatero's support for his rival.

The existence of two leaders Joaquín Almunia, Secretary General, and José Borrell, official candidate, caused problems within the Socialist party, used to being directed only by the Secretary General. Finally, two former collaborators of Borrell were accused of having been corrupt when they worked for him in the Spanish Government, and he resigned, alleging that he did not want to damage his party with the scandal. Almunia replaced him and ran for the Spanish premiership in the elections held in 2000.

The Association of Parliamentary Journalists awarded to Zapatero the "Diputado Revelación" prize (something like MP surprise of the year) in December 1999 for his activities as member of the Congress of Deputies. Since 1996 until 2000, his most conspicuous contributions as an MP were his vigorous opposition to the electrical protocol proposed by the government (initially negative for the important coal sector of León), his being the Socialist Spokesman in the Commission of Public Administration and his probably most important success as an MP: the passing of an amendment to the national budget of 2000 in November 1999 that increased the pensions of the non-professional soldiers who fought for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. They were made equal to the professional military's. The initiative was defended by him in the name of the Parliamentary Socialist Group, proponent of the amendment. .

Appointment as Secretary General of the Socialist Party

On March 12, 2000, the PSOE had lost its second successive election to José María Aznar's People's Party. Zapatero preserved his seat, but the Socialist Party obtained only 125, 16 fewer than in 1996. The defeat was specially bitter as the People's Party unexpectedly obtained an absolute majority for the first time and the socialist result was worse than in the previous election. Joaquín Almunia, announced his resignation on the very day the General Election took place.

Zapatero decided to run for the leadership of the Socialist Party in its 35th Conference to be celebrated in June that year. He founded together with other socialist members a new faction within the party called Nueva Vía (New Way) in April 2000, to serve him as a platform to become Secretary General. The name of Nueva Vía is a mix of Tony Blair's Third Way (tercera vía in Spanish) and Gerhard Schröder's Neue Mitte (new center or nuevo centro in Spanish).

A document of New Way proclaimed the group objectives: "New Way' wants to generate a project of political and social change for and from democratic socialism, a Socialist project to allow the PSOE to recover its credibility and the citizens' trust."

The members of Nueva Vía had, on average, 40 years. Among the most prominent of them were Zapatero, Trinidad Jiménez, Jesús Caldera, Jordi Sevilla, José Blanco, Antonio Cuevas, Enrique Martínez, etc. .

Enrique Martínez played an important role in the promotion of Zapatero. He was the director of the "Escuela Jaime Vera" a school belonging to the party that prepare Socialist Leaders. His network of contacts became essential.

He and Jesús Caldera knew José Luis Balbás, prominent member of the Socialist Federation of Madrid (FSM is its acronym in Spanish). He had belonged to the Unión de Centro Democrático, the center party that won the first two democratic elections and joined the PSOE in 1981. He is an entrepreneur, an auditor and a consultant. He belonged to a sector within the FSM called "Renovadores de la Base", that amounted to a third of the FSM. (There were other two sections: the so-called leguinistas - followers of a former president of the regional government of Madrid called Joaquín Leguina and the guerristas.)

In April 2000, Zapatero, Caldera and José Blanco had lunch with Eduardo Tamayo in a restaurant in Madrid, a friend of José Luis Balbás in the party. (Tamayo would become later a representative of Zapatero in the 35th party national conference and a major character in the so-called crisis of the Assembly of Madrid, described later) At the end of the month the "Renovadores de la Base" decided to support Zapatero. José Luis Balbás agreed to be part of the team of New Way after being invited by José Blanco and Enrique Martínez . He played an important role during the campaign and the 35th conference. For example, Balbás together with José Blanco controlled the list of delegates with all the data about them. It was a fundamental job, as the different tasks of promotion needed that list, at least, to contact the delegates for the conference.

On June 25, 2000 Zapatero announced officially his intention to run for the federal Secretaryship General in an Extraordinary Conference of the Socialist Party of León . In his speech, he stated what can be considered his declaration of principles :

1. To build a society that would accept all foreigners notwithstanding their color or cultural level.
2. To give priority to education and to create good jobs for youngsters.
3. To provide parents with more time to spend with their children and in taking care of their elders.
4. To promote culture and its creators, making it possible for them to grab the spotlight from those aimed only at economic interests.
5. To convert Spain into a country admired for helping those with more needs.
6. To force the government to help those with initiative and enterprising qualities.
7. To foster democracy, to lend distinction to politics and to promote values over temporary interests.

Pasqual Maragall was the only regional leader of the Socialist Party who officially supported him before the Conference was celebrated. Borrell also decided to support him.

Zapatero ran against three other opponents (José Bono, Rosa Díez and Matilde Fernández). Matilde Fernández was the candidate of the guerristas while José Bono was the candidate of the reformers. Rosa Díez is a Basque politician who was a kind of intermediate option.

Zapatero was a dark horse who had against him his inexperience and in favor his image of renovation and being the only among the candidates. (All the Spanish opposition leaders have been MPs before winning the elections. That is very important in Spanish politics where electoral campaigns last for only 15 days and to be widely known long before they begin is essential.) Bono was deeply disliked by the guerristas, what also favored Zapatero significantly.

He finally won by a relatively small margin (he obtained 414 votes out of 995 and José Bono obtained 405) on July 22, 2000 ). The margin was relatively small because Bono had no opportunity of winning, as the supporters of the other two candidates preferred Zapatero to him. Zapatero even accepted to renounced to hold a run-off between the two most voted candidates as he was sure of his victory after only a ballot and he did not want to humiliate his adversary.

After being elected secretary general, he was congratulated by Lionel Jospin (then the French Prime Minister), Gerhard Schröder (chancellor of Germany) and José María Aznar .

He moved to Madrid with his family that year. As a congressman he had lived from Monday to Thursday in Madrid and the rest of days in León.

Leader of the PSOE

On March 12, 2000, the Spanish Socialist Party lost its second successive election to José María Aznar's People's Party. Zapatero kept his seat, but the Socialist Party won only 125 seats, 16 fewer than in 1996. The defeat was particularly bitter as the People's Party unexpectedly obtained an absolute majority.

Zapatero decided to run for the leadership of the PSOE in its 35th Conference in June of that year. He started a new faction within the party called the Nueva Vía. Zapatero was a "dark horse" candidate. His critics pointed to his inexperience while his backers argued that he had a reformers' image and was the only MP among the candidates. (All the Spanish opposition leaders have been MPs before winning the elections.) Zapatero won by a small margin (414 votes out of 995; José Bono Martínez received 405).

Opposition leader

Appointment as Secretary General

In 2000, the Socialist Party (PSOE) had lost its second successive election to José María Aznar's People's Party. The defeat was specially bitter as the People's Party unexpectedly obtained an absolute majority for the first time and the socialist result was worse than in the previous election. Joaquín Almunia, the Socialist candidate and successor of Felipe González as leader of the party, announced his resignation on the very day the General Election took place. (See Spanish legislative election, 2000).

Zapatero decided to run for the leadership of the Socialist Party in its 35th Conference to be celebrated in June that year. He founded together with other socialists a new faction within the party called Nueva Vía (New Way) in April 2000, to serve him as a platform to become Secretary General. The name of Nueva Vía is a mix of Tony Blair's Third Way (tercera vía in Spanish) and Gerhard Schröder's Neue Mitte (new center or nuevo centro in Spanish).

A document of New Way proclaimed the group objectives: "New Way' wants to generate a project of political and social change for and from democratic socialism, a Socialist project to allow the PSOE to recover its credibility and the citizens' trust."

The members of Nueva Vía had, on average, 40 years. Among the most prominent of them were Zapatero, Trinidad Jiménez, Jesús Caldera, Jordi Sevilla, José Blanco, Antonio Cuevas, Enrique Martínez, etc. . Enrique Martínez was a fundamental asset for Zapatero. He was the director of the "Escuela Jaime Vera" a school belonging to the party that prepares Socialist Leaders. His network of contacts became essential.

On June 25, 2000 Zapatero announced officially his intention to run for the federal Secretaryship General in an Extraordinary Conference of the Socialist Party of León . In his speech, he stated what can be considered his declaration of principles :

1. To build a society that would accept all foreigners notwithstanding their color or cultural level.
2. To give priority to education and to create good jobs for youngsters.
3. To provide parents with more time to spend with their children and in taking care of their elders.
4. To promote culture and its creators, making it possible for them to grab the spotlight from those aimed only at economic interests.
5. To convert Spain into a country admired for helping those with more needs.
6. To force the government to help those with initiative and enterprising qualities.
7. To foster democracy, to lend distinction to politics and to promote values over temporary interests.

Pasqual Maragall was the only regional leader of the Socialist Party who officially supported him before the Conference was celebrated. Josep Borrell, an important Socialist leader who had been chosen to be the candidate of the Socialist Party for the 2000 electin (although he was finally substituted with Joaquín Almunia]]), also decided to support him.

Zapatero ran against three other opponents (José Bono, Rosa Díez and Matilde Fernández). Matilde Fernández was the candidate of the guerristas (an important faction of the Socialist Party, characterized for its left-wing leanings) while José Bono was the candidate of the reformers. Rosa Díez is a Basque politician who was a kind of intermediate option.

Zapatero was a dark horse who had against him his inexperience and in favor his image of renovation and being the only MP among the candidates. (All the Spanish opposition leaders have been MPs before winning the elections. That is very important in Spanish politics where electoral campaigns last for only 15 days and to be widely known long before they begin is essential.) Bono was deeply disliked by the guerristas, which also favored Zapatero significantly.

He finally won by a relatively small margin (he obtained 414 votes out of 995 and José Bono obtained 405) on July 22, 2000 . The margin was relatively small because Bono had no opportunity of winning, as the supporters of the other two candidates preferred Zapatero to him. Zapatero was so sure of his victory that, before the ballot, he even accepted to renounce to hold a run-off between the two most voted candidates, in order not to humiliate his adversary and foster unity.

After being elected secretary general, he was congratulated by Lionel Jospin (then the French Prime Minister), Gerhard Schröder (chancellor of Germany) and José María Aznar .

He moved to Madrid with his family that year. As a congressman he had lived from Monday to Thursday in Madrid and the rest of days in León.

Style of opposition

Zapatero has always claimed to base his political activity on his love for dialog. When he was an opposition leader, he liked to compare his behavior with the "arrogant", "authoritarian" approach of the People's Party and, especially, that of its leader José María Aznar.

As a result, after being appointed Secretary General, he coined the term Calm Opposition (Oposición Tranquila) to refer to his opposition strategy. The Calm Opposition was supposedly based on an "open to dialogue", "soft", "constructive" attitude (talante) aimed not at damaging the government but at achieving the "best" for the people. (Zapatero has insisted on this point so many times that the term talante has become very popular in Spain.) Because of this supposed tactic, Zapatero received nicknames like "" or "Sosoman" (where "Soso" -- meaning dull, insipid, bore -- replaces "Super" in "Superman"), especially in the first months after being appointed General Secretary.

During Zapatero's years as an opposition leader (and later as Prime Minister), the tension between left-wing and right-wing supporters increased and, according to some opinions, a real radicalization of the society took (and is taking) place . Zapatero's supporters blame his opponents for that and the People's Party blames him stating facts as the increase in the acts of violence committed against them, especially in the months before and during the Iraq war . As a result, a new term has become popular: guerracivilismo (made up of a combination of the Spanish for Civil War and the -ismo suffix, equivalent to the English -ism), which would refer to the growing enmity of right and left-wing factions.

As an opposition leader Zapatero enjoyed the support of an important part of the Spanish media and, especially, those belonging to the PRISA group such as the daily newspaper El País, the chain of radio stations that form the SER (Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión) or the TV channel Canal+. The PRISA group is controlled by Jesús de Polanco (one of the richest man in Spain) who has been linked to the Socialist Party in the past years. It has been claimed that he controls more media in Spain than Berlusconi in Italy.

Years 2000 and 2001

Zapatero's criticism against the government was very active from the beginning. His first attack against the government was based on its inability to control the rise in the price of fossil fuel. He asked for a reduction in the taxes affecting it.

In 2000, the British nuclear submarine HMS Tireless arrived at the Gibraltar harbor to have its nuclear reactor repaired. Aznar's affirmed that there was no risk for the population but Zapatero criticized it for his inability to force the British government to take the submarine to another harbor. After almost one year, the Tireless was repaired and left Gibraltar without having caused any known problem. .

Another point of friction came from the scheme to transfer water from the River Ebro to other areas especially the irrigated areas in the South East of Spain, one of the richest agricultural regions in the world. That scheme received support from, among others, the 80% of the affected farmers and the Socialist regional governments of regions such as Extremadura, Andalusia or Castilla-La Mancha, which were, among others, the target of the scheme. Some Socialist politicians also supported it when they were members of the former Socialist government back in the 90s (e.g. José Borrell, the current leader of the European Spanish Socialist Group and president of the European Parliament ). The scheme was mainly contested by Zapatero, environmentalist groups, the Socialist regional government of Aragon and a part of the citizens of the areas from which water was to be transferred. The main criticisms against the scheme were the supposed damage to the environment and an argued real lack of sufficient water for all of the affected parties (the proponents of the scheme answered back that there was no risk of a serious environmental damage and that in 2003 14 times more water reached the sea than what was needed annually). (The scheme, finally approved by the Government, was canceled by Zapatero soon after becoming Prime Minister.)

Zapatero was the main proponent of the "Pacto de las Libertades contra el Terrorismo" ("Pact of the liberties against terrorism"), which was signed on December 8, 2000. In the first moment this pact was despised and rejected but later was considered a primal stone in the strategy against the Basque terrorism in Spain not only by the Socialist Party but by the People's Party (currently, it is considered broken by the People's Party). Zapatero's harder critics have defended that the Pact was originated by the wish of the People's Party and the Socialist Party to bury the Socialist ambiguity towards Nationalist Parties caused by the need the Socialist Party had of their votes.

At the end of the year, the Mad Cow disease came back to the spotlight after its outbreak in 1996. Zapatero repeatedly criticized the Government's management of the crisis arguing that it was out of control . That disease has caused dozens of deaths all over Europe though none in Spain (March 2005).

In 2001 one of the biggest friction points between the government and the opposition was the proposed reforms affecting the education system. The People's Party introduced the so-called LOU first, a law to change the University System, and later the LOCE (Organic Act for Education Quality), which affected the Secondary Education. Zapatero harshly opposed both. The People's Party used its absolute majority in the Cortes to pass its reforms but after it had taken place an important number of protests by unions of students, which enjoyed an unusual attention of the public media although their protests had usually passed unnoticed until Zapatero's arrival.

A regional election was held in the Basque country on May 13, 2001. The socialists received 17.8% of the vote (against 17.6% in the previous 1998 elections) but lost one seat. Both, the Socialist Party and the People's Party had formed an alliance against the then ruling nationalist Basque political movements but they finally won again. The results were considered a failure . Nicolás Redondo Terreros, the Basque Socialist leader during the election and very opposed to the Basque nationalism and to ETA, resigned after some internal clashes, leaving his seat at the Basque parliament and in the Federal Executive. He was substituted with Patxi López, elected on March 24, 2002 . Patxi López had actively supported Zapatero during his campaign to become Secretary General .

On October 21, 2001 took place a new regional election, this time in Galicia. The People's Party (led by Manuel Fraga Iribarne) obtained a new absolute majority. The Socialist party increased its number of seats from 15 to 17, but, after several years of being opposition the results were also considered bad. . These two negative results seemed to confirm that Zapatero's approach was not working.

On December 19, 2001 Zapatero traveled to Morocco, after the Moroccan government expelled the Spanish ambassador sine die. Javier Arenas, a prominent member of the People's Party, accused him of not being loyal to Spanish interests. Zapatero denied it and claimed that one of his purposes was to help solve the crisis .

From 2002 to 2004

In 2002, Zapatero was chosen as the Socialist candidate for the next General Election. He was appointed directly, without a previous primary election .

In 2002 the People's Party Government decided to reform the system of unemployment benefits as it thought that there were too many workers who being able to find a job preferred to continue receiving public money. This led to a redefinition of who were eligible for unemployment subsidies. Left-wing parties and trade unions considered that redefinition an unacceptable reduction of rights. Zapatero became the political leader of the opposition against the reform (dubbed the Decretazo, becaused it was passed using a decree-law), which served him as his first important clash with Aznar's government.

A General Strike was announced for June 20, 2002 (the first since Aznar won the election in 1996). According to official data (including the electrical power consumption and the number of worked man-days calculated by the Social Security) the turnout was lower than 15%, the lowest since the restoration of democracy (there were four General Strikes during Felipe González premiership). The unions and Zapatero disbelieved the data and considered the strike a resounding success, with more than "10 million" workers. Whatever the result, both the People's Party government and the trade unions signed an agreement that satisfied both parties in November.

Felipe González declared in May 2002 in reference to the change in the Socialist Party that "My state of mind tells me that a change has taken place, that perhaps a second Suresnes has happened, but it has yet to be proved that a new project with content and ideas really exists", thus doubting Zapatero's leadership. That declaration was expressed in a public event also attended by Zapatero, who calmly expressed his disagreement. González ended his intervention by remembering that his candidate for Secretary General was José Bono, not Zapatero. González rectified the next day affirming that either his words had been incorrectly construed or he had expressed his ideas erroneously. Bono himself confirmed his total support for Zapatero. The incident seemed to confirm that Zapatero's strategy was not working.

On October 22, 2002 Zapatero spoke in the name of the Socialist Party during the debate about the National Budget. It had been initially scheduled that Jordi Sevilla would be the Socialist spokesman but, in the last moment, he was substituted by surprise. When Jordi Sevilla, after being called by the speaker, had already descended to the floor of the Congress of Deputies, Zapatero said to him "let me do it" and climbed to the orator platform. Aznar and other members of the People's Party had previously criticized him for not representing his party in the debate, suggesting a lack of the necessary political skills. Zapatero tried to prove it was false, and it seems that his action had quite a positive effect over his supporters; although the People's Party considered his action too theatrical .

In November 2002, the oil tanker Prestige suffered an accident in international waters near Galicia (a region in the Northwestern tip of Spain) that caused a grave oil slick which mainly affected Galicia, but also, in a lesser degree all the northern coast of Spain, and even the coast of France. The tanker was ordered by the governmental authorities to be moved away from the coast because it seems that the oil is easier to recover from the water than from the sand - for example, there exist special ships prepared for that - and increasing the distance increases the affected area but decrease the number of irremediably affected places. The Prestige finally split and sank.

Zapatero blamed the PP Government management during and after the accident for the accident. The decision to take the tanker away was especially criticized as Zapatero expressed it to be unnecessary. Although the Prestige was very old and in a very bad state, Zapatero thought that it should have be allowed to enter a harbor.

The accident and its consequences became the main source of Socialist criticisms and the biggest friction point, together with Iraq, until the election of 2004. A Socialist MP in the Regional Assembly of Madrid, Antonio Carmona, declared soon after the catastrophe: "We have more than enough votes, if not, we will sink another boat". . He resigned because of this declarations. Jesús Caldera, who became a minister after the victory in 2004, used a manipulated document relative to the route of the Prestige in a parliamentary debate about the catastrophe, what was very criticized by the People's Party . These events were used by the People Party's "to demonstrate" the "demagogical strategy" of the Socialist Party.

Probably, the main point of friction between Aznar and Zapatero was the war on Iraq. Opinion polls showed that a clear majority of Spanish voters were against the American led attack against Saddam's regime (near or surpassing 90%). Among them, Zapatero who considered illegal any action against Saddam Hussein's regime and the very concept of preemptive war. Zapatero never made public his own solutions to solve the several problems affecting Iraq after its defeat in Kuwait such as the fear caused by the suspected existence of WMD or the embargo affecting the Middle East country.

His first clash with the United States is related to his stance about the war. On October 12, 2003 (Spanish national holiday) he remained sat before the American flag carried by a representation of the American army taking part in the annual military parade. He declared afterwards that his action was a protest against the Iraq war and not an insult to the American people.

On May 25, 2003, the first local and regional elections since Zapatero's appointment as leader of the Socialist party took place. The Socialist Party received a larger popular vote (what prompted Zapatero to claim his party had been the winner) but the People's Party obtained more government posts in councils and regional governments. In general, there were not too many changes in the results compared to those of the previous Elections held in 1999. An unexpected scandal, the so-called Scandal of the Madrid Assembly, affected negatively the socialist expectations of a victory in 2004. The elections in the Region of Madrid, one of the most important of Spain, had to be repeated and they were won by the People's Party. Later, in October, a regional election took place in Catalonia, whose results were worse than expected for the Socialist Party (See Zapatero and the Local and Regional Elections of 2003).

On May 26, 2003 a Yakovlev Yak-42 plane carrying Spanish soldiers coming home from Afghanistan crashed in Turkey. The plane had been hired by an agency of the NATO and any other country could have used it. In Zapatero's view it presented clear dangers and he blamed Jose Maria Aznar and his government for neglecting aspects like the plane insurance or safety. After the 2004 March elections it was proven that there had been serious irregularities when recognizing the bodies with an important number of mistakes in the identifications.

Concerning the European Constitution, Zapatero criticized the People's Party Government for fighting to preserve the distribution of power agreed by the Nice treaty (December 2000) in the new European Constitution. Zapatero thought that Spain should accept a lesser share of power.

At end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004 the Spanish political parties started to prepare themselves for the general election of 2004. All of the opinion polls elaborated at the time foreseen a defeat for Zapatero, as they always predicted a new victory for the People's Party. (See Zapatero and the 2004 General Election)

The General Election

Entering the general election on March 14, 2004, opinion polls were slightly favorable to the People's Party which was hoping to regain its absolute majority or lose it narrowly. But still, the error margin of the polls was smaller than the difference between both parties, thus leaving room for a technical draw (technical tie). However, Zapatero's PSOE won both in terms of number of votes and number of congressional seats. There is some controversy about the switch in voting. One interpretation suggested that the Madrid Bombings on March 11, 2004 -- three days before the elections -- changed the result of the elections, thus being the factor in the unexpected victory of the PSOE after the two nights of incidents around the PP headquarters and some of their provincial branches. Conversely, growing empirical evidence suggests that the explanation is more complex: after the Madrid bombings, voters related the terrorist attacks with the government policy in Iraq; but they also weighted up the controversial management of the Madrid crisis by the incumbent; and, finally, they also introduced an evaluation of other unrelated policies in their voting decision. So, in that view, the Madrid bombings reinforced the decline of Popular Party's votes and the support for the opposition parties observed in pre-electoral polls, but in a complex way.

In spite of that evidence, the political debate about the effects of the Madrid bombings on the elections has been radicalized. For some -those close to the PSOE- these were due to the ill management of the crisis by the People's Party government. Some others -within PP supporters- suggest that the elections were "stolen" in a not clean way by means of the turmoil around the PP premises which followed the terrorist bombing (thus hurting its electoral image), this was, according to this point of view, backed if not fueled itself by the PSOE.

These incidents did interfer with the last day of campaign when, according to the Spanish electoral system regulations, any kind of political propaganda is prohibitted.

Zapatero won the election, obtaining 164 seats. The People's Party obtained 148. Despite the fact that Zapatero had won the election, he lacked a clear majority which he needed to ensure his appointment as Prime Minister (176 are needed). Zapatero began negotiating with possible coalition partners, eventually gaining the support of the United Left and the Republican Left of Catalonia. This is not a permanent coalition, resulting in the Socialists negotiate with the other parties before every major vote.

Prime ministership: domestic policy

Much of Zapatero's work has been on social issues, including gender-violence and discrimination , divorce and same-sex marriage . The most recent social issue tackled has been the Dependency Law , a plan to regulate help and resources for people in dire need of them, and who cannot provide for themselves and must rely on others on a daily basis. Zapatero has also made it clear that he values funding of research and development and higher education and believes them to be essential for Spain's economic competitiveness. At the same time, he has increased the minimum wage and pursued other classically socialist policies. He has also announced his intention to undertake limited reforms to the Spanish Constitution, though no specifics have been made available.

Same-sex marriage

The legalization of same-sex marriage in Spain (became law on July 1, 2005) includes adoption rights as well as other rights that were available only to heterosexual couples. This caused a stir within the Catholic Church and was contested from their position .

Regional territorial tensions

Zapatero has often declared that his government will not be "soft on terrorism" and will not allow regional nationalists to endanger Spanish unity. Some say that this comment was probably made for his party alliances with parties like Republican Left of Catalonia.

On 13 November 2003 in a rally in Barcelona during the election campaign that took Pasqual Maragall to power in the Generalitat, Rodríguez Zapatero pronounced a famous promise to approve the Statute of Catalonia:

I will support the reform of the Statute of Catalonia that the Parliament of Catalonia approves.

In October 2005, a controversial proposal to reform the Catalan statute arrived at the Spanish parliament after being passed in Catalonia. Zapatero, who had often expressed his support for a change of the statute (although he did not entirely support the draft passed by the Catalan Parliament), became on October 12, 2005 (Spain's national holiday), the first prime minister ever to be booed during the traditional military parade in Madrid, probably due to the large popular opposition to the new statute outside of Catalonia.

Spanish Civil War remnants

In October 2004 Zapatero's government undertook the task of morally and legally rehabilitating those who were suppressed during and after the Spanish Civil War, by instituting a Memory Commission chaired by Vice-Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega.

On March 17, 2005, Zapatero's government ordered the removal of the last remaining statue of former dictator Francisco Franco that remained in Madrid.

Reform of the education system

Just after he took office, Zapatero repealed the law reforming the Education System passed by the previous government and, in November 2005, he introduced his own reform project. The project is opposed by the People's Party, the Catholic Church, the Muslim community, several parents' associations and an important part of the educational community, often for disparate reasons. Complaints against the reform include the limits it imposes upon the parent's freedom to choose a school, the decrease in academic status of voluntary religious education, the introduction of a compulsory course ("Education for Citizenship") and a perceived ineffectuality of the reform in terms of combating poor educational results. The last complaint would be reinforced by the fact that, in the last few years, Spain has ranked poorly amongst the developed countries in the quality and results of its education.

After the demonstration took place the government held a series of meetings with many of the organizations that initially opposed the reform, reaching agreements with some of them (especially parents and teachers associations). Some others, most prominently the People Party and the Catholic Church, remain staunchly opposed to it.

Foreign policy

Zapatero favors a multilateral approach to foreign policy with the United Nations playing a fundamental role. He has also affirmed his view that a strict respect of international law is essential for keeping the peace. The first time he spoke before the UN General Assembly, he proposed an Alliance of Civilizations as a way to solve the world's problems.

Foreign policy is the area where Zapatero differs most sharply from his predecessor. Aznar defended a foreign policy based on two pillars: A strong alliance with the U.S., and a peripheral European strategy where Spain would emphasize its friendship with European countries like Italy, the UK, and Poland in order to counterbalance French and German power within the EU. Whereas Zapatero has forged closer relationships with Latin America.

European Union

Zapatero has preferred to focus on what have traditionally been considered the core countries of the European Union, France and Germany. With regard to the EU, Zapatero accepted the distribution of power within the now defunct European Constitution of the European Union proposed by Germany and France. After signing up the treaty in Rome with the other leaders, Spain was the first country to hold a referendum to ratify the now abandoned constitution which was approved on February 20, 2005.

During the summer of 2006, Spain registered the worst of several illegal immigration waves to date. The opposition PP blames Zapatero's cabinet for the much increased illegal immigration, for having impulsed a regularization process soon after it came to office which granted a work permit for a massive amount of immigrants in Spain which were in an irregular situation until that moment (PP claims this affected 700,000 irregular immigrants).

In this regard, during the meeting of the European Union Justice and Home Affairs Ministers held in Tampere on September 22, 2006, some of the European ministers reprimanded the Spanish authorities for the aforementioned massive regularization of illegal immigrants which was regarded as too loose and opposed to the policies of other State members (on September 2 and 3rd alone, during the height of the last illegal immigration wave, 2,283 people arrived illegaly in the Canary Islands having shipped from Senegal aboard of 27 traditional Senegalese boats ). It must be noted that, once they reach Spanish territory, the illegal immigrants can travel freely -for the internal frontiers are basically open- within the European Union; thus, it is not strange that some of them have as their final destination some other European country. This started a short lived polemics between France's Nicolas Sarkozy and the Spanish premier Rodríguez Zapatero.

Iraq and relations with the U.S.

During the electoral campaign, Zapatero promised to recall the troops in Iraq. The withdrawal aroused a great deal of both international criticism and support, with the former fearing that it could be perceived as a victory for terrorists and the latter that it was a blow to US 'imperialist' plans. Some months later, Zapatero's government agreed to increase the number of Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan and to send troops to Haiti in a show of willingness to allot resources to international missions.

On June 8, 2004, with the withdrawal already finished, Zapatero's government voted in favor of the UN Security Council Resolution 1546 which included provisions that asked member states and NGOs to contribute military and economic assistance to Iraq. However, in a later visit to Tunisia, Zapatero asked all countries with troops in Iraq to withdraw their soldiers. This drew an angry response from the President Bush, and the American ambassador to Spain refused to go to the annual National Holiday military parade to protest Zapatero's comments.

Relations between President Bush and Zapatero remained strained in late 2004 when Bush won re-election and Zapatero's congratulatory call was not passed directly to Bush — unlike many other important world leaders' calls (such as Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac). Zapatero's message was later passed on by King Juan Carlos who visited Bush's Texas ranch a week after the US elections.

Latin America

Another change in policy with regard to his predecessor is Zapatero's decision to approach leftist leaders in Latin America such as Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. Zapatero has also played an important role in the improvement of relations between Fidel Castro's Cuban government and the European Union. At the end of March 2005, Zapatero travelled to Venezuela for a deal that allowed for the sale of Spanish military ships and aircraft to Venezuela. The decision was criticized by the US government. Zapatero has stated that the equipment has no offensive capabilities. In January 2006 the US Department of Defense was able to block the sale of various transport planes by arguing that they contained US military technology . In the same month Evo Morales chose to visit Spain and Rodriguez Zapatero as the only European stop on his world tour before assuming the Bolivian presidency.

Notes

1. CIDOB bio, in Spanish
2. El País, October 9th, 2006, in Spanish

References

• (OCAM) Óscar Campillo Madrigal. Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). 1st ed. updated. (La Esfera de los Libros, Spain, April 2004). ISBN 84-9734-193-7.

See also

• History of Spain
• Politics of Spain

External links

Official

• Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
• Web site of La Moncloa, official residence of the Spanish Prime Minister

Press

• The second transition, a survey of Spain by The Economist, Jun 24th 2004
• Interview published by Time Magazine, 19 Sep 2004
• Accidental Prime Minister
• Extended biography (in Spanish) by CIDOB Foundation

Template:José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

• Articles lacking sources from December 2006
• José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
• Prime Ministers of Spain
• Spanish politicians
• Castile and León people
• Current national leaders
• 1960 births
• Living people