José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
File:Zapatero.jpg
Incumbent
Assumed office April 17, 2004
Vice President	María Teresa Fernández de la Vega and Pedro Solbes
Preceded by	José María Aznar
Personal details
Born	August 4, 1960 Valladolid
Nationality	cuba
Political party	PSOE
Spouse	Sonsoles Espinosa

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero^ⓘ  (born August 4, 1960 in Valladolid) is the President of the Government of Spain. His party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), won the general election on March 14, 2004. Notable actions of his government have included withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq and legalising same-sex marriages. He has also granted the region of Catalonia a greater amount of autonomy and sacked General Jose Mena for threatening military action against Catalonia should the Spanish Constitution of 1978 be broken by the Zapatero government.

In April 2006, Zapatero garnered a 53.9% approval rating, while the opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, was given 39.7% [3].

Personal life and youth

Zapatero was born in Valladolid to an affluent family with a long history of left-wing politics. His father, Juan Rodríguez García-Lozano, is a prominent lawyer. His paternal grandfather, Juan Rodríguez Lozano, a Republican army captain, was killed by Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. In his will, his grandfather called on family members to clear his name "when the time is right."

Zapatero grew up in León and began his schooling at the religious primary school "Discípulas de Jesús" (Disciples of Jesus) in September, 1966. In September 1970, he entered the "Colegio Leonés" (Leonese College) , the only private lay school in León at the time. He later went on to study law at the University of León, graduating in 1982.

After graduating, Zapatero worked as a lecturer of constitutional law in the University of León. He was elected to Parliament in 1986, and in October 1991, his contract was terminated by the new rector of the university after the school's legal advisors determined that Zapatero's dual position as a professor and an MP were incompatible.

On January 27, 1990, Zapatero married Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz, the daughter of a military officer (Rafael Espinosa Armendáris). Zapatero is also the father of two young girls, Laura (1993) and Alba (1995).

Zapatero enters politics

Zapatero, accompanied by his family, attended his first political rally on August 15, 1976. It was a meeting organised by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) in Gijón. Political parties had been legal since July 21, 1976 but the PSOE was not legalised until February 1977. At the rally, Felipe González, the Socialist leader and future Prime Minister of Spain, gave a stirring speech, which had a profound impact upon the young Zapatero.

Zapatero's family had traditionally been attracted to the Spanish Communist Party, as it was the only well-organised left wing party before Francisco Franco's death in 1975. After the rally in Gijón, however, they started to believe that the PSOE had the most potential for the Spanish left. In 1977, the year of the first democratic elections, Zapatero supported both the communist and socialist (PSOE) parties. He officially chose the PSOE in 1979, enrolling as a member on February 23. In 1982 he became the head of the party's youth wing.

In 1986, he was elected to represent the province of León in the Cortes (Parliament), becoming its youngest member. Zapatero organised a coalition to obtain the mayoralty in León in 1987, justifying the coalition by arguing that it was necessary to change the "negative dynamics" of the city, to "normalise" its democratic life, and to end its "bad relations" with other institutions, such as the Regional Government of Castilla y León.

In 1988, Zapatero was appointed Secretary General of the PSOE in León after a complex internal fight that ended a long period of divisions and internal confrontation. The situation was so bad that Ramón Rubial, then national president of the PSOE, asked the party in León to create some semblance of unity before the provincial conference later that year. At that time, Zapatero defined himself as a "left-wing conservative".

Zapatero was re-elected secretary general with 68% of the ballots in the 7th Regional Conference held in July 1994. In 1995, new regional and local elections were held. Its results were unfavorable for the PSOE in León as they lost four seats in the mayoralty of León and two seats in the regional parliament of Castilla-León. The results were influenced by the bad economic situation and corruption accusations against the party. In 1996, following the General Election, Zapatero kept his seat at the Congress of Deputies. The next year, Zapatero was again re-elected as the PSOE Secretary General of León.

Leader of the PSOE

On March 12, 2000, the PSOE lost its second successive election to José María Aznar's PP. Zapatero kept his seat, but the PSOE won only 125 seats, 16 fewer than in 1996. The defeat was especially bitter as the PP 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 (New Way.) On June 25, 2000 Zapatero announced his intention to run for the Secretary General at a meeting in León. 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 received 405).

Opposition leader

At first, Zapatero declared that he would be constructive and would not try to damage the government. He even coined the expression "Oposición Tranquila," or "peaceful opposition." As the PSOE did not immediately gain popularity, he was nicknamed "Bambi," especially in the first months after being appointed General Secretary.

Zapatero's first criticism of the sitting government concerned its inability to control the rise of fuel prices. He asked for a reduction in the excise taxes in order to compensate for crude oil price increases. At the end of the same year, Mad Cow Disease came back into the spotlight after an outbreak in 1996. Zapatero repeatedly criticised the government's management of the crisis arguing that it was out of control. The disease caused dozens of deaths in Europe, though none in Spain.

In 2000, the British nuclear submarine H.M.S. Tireless docked at Gibraltar in order to have its reactor repaired. Aznar affirmed that there was no risk to the population, but Zapatero criticised Aznar for his inability to try to make the British government move the submarine elsewhere. The issue became a point of controversy in Spain, attracting public attention for months, and resulting in several demonstrations near the British colony. After almost a year, the Tireless was repaired and left without having caused any known problem.

On December 19, 2001 Zapatero travelled to Morocco after the Moroccan government expelled the Spanish ambassador.

Iraq and foreign policy

The main source of friction between Aznar and Zapatero was Iraq. Opinion polls showed that a clear majority of Spanish voters (more than 90%) were, like him, against the American-led invasion.

Zapatero's first clash with the U.S. was also related to his anti-war stance. On October 12, 2003, he remained seated during an annual military parade when the American flag passed in front of him. He said afterward that his action was intended to be a protest against the Iraq war and not an insult to the American people. His stance was to support the position of Hans Blix and the United Nations.

On May 26, 2003 a Yakovlev Yak 42 plane carrying Spanish soldiers returning from Afghanistan crashed in Turkey. The plane had been hired by a NATO agency. Zapatero blamed Aznar and his government for the crash. It was not until after the March 2004 elections that it became known that there had been a large number of mistakes in identifying the bodies. The political fallout, however, rivalled that of the Prestige oil spill.

ETA

In 2000 after several mortal attacks by the organisation ETA, Zapatero proposed the "Pacto de las Libertades contra el Terrorismo," or the "Freedom Pact against terrorism." At first, some prominent PP members opposed Zapatero's proposal saying it accomplished little, but the agreement was signed in December 2000. The main aim of the accord was to foster unity between the PP and the PSOE in the fight against ETA. It included clauses to ensure that policies towards these groups would not be used as a weapon for political gain.

The National Hydrological Plan

The "National Hydrological Plan" has been a great source of regional friction. Its main component, as enacted by the PP, was to transfer water from the Ebro River to areas in the southeast of Spain. The scheme received the support of farmers in the southeast, and was backed by Socialist regional governments in these regions, including the autonomous regions of Extremadura, Andalusia Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha. Some socialist leaders had supported the project when they were members of the government back in the 1990s as ex-minister Josep Borrell. Because of great regional and historical support within his party, matters were complicated greatly for Zapatero; nevertheless he chose to oppose the PP and therefore the National Plan.

Opposition to the scheme was led by Zapatero, environmental groups, the socialist regional government of Aragon, and citizens who lived in the areas from where the water was to be transferred. The main criticisms of the scheme were the cost of the works, that it would damage the environment and deprive farmers in the north of necessary water. The proponents argued that there was no risk of environmental damage as 14 times more water reached the sea each year than was needed to preserve the ecosystem, and that this was the way of partially solving the problem of water shortages suffered by the Regions of Valencia and Murcia and the Province of Almería. Although the long awaited scheme was enacted into law under the government of Aznar, it was cancelled immediately upon the commencement of Zapatero's government.

Prestige oil tanker accident

In November 2002, the oil tanker Prestige suffered an accident in international waters near Galicia, causing a large oil slick to damage the Galician and northern Iberian coastlines and the southern Atlantic coast of France. As it was old and badly damaged, the governmental authorities deemed the tanker to be irreparable. It was towed away from the coast in an attempt to minimise the damaging effects of the accident.

Zapatero and many technicians criticised the government's management during the accident, especially the decision to pull the tanker away from the coast. Zapatero argued that had the ship been taken to a harbour, the worst of the catastrophe could have been prevented. The accident and its consequences became a major issue for the whole country; other than the war in Iraq, it was probably the most significant point of friction during the 2004 election. People from all parts of Spain came to the coast to help in the cleanup, including forces from the military a few days after the accident occurred.

Employment and education policies

In 2001, one of the largest sources of friction between the government and the opposition was the proposed reforms affecting the education system. The PP introduced a law to change the University and later the LOCE, or Organic Act for Education Quality, affecting secondary education. Zapatero and the rest of opposition parties strongly opposed both. The PP used its absolute majority in the Cortes to pass its reforms, but protests by student unions, which were joined by many organisations included the PSOE, received a great deal of media attention.

Intermediate regional elections

In the run up to the general election of March 2004, there were several regional elections during Zapatero's time as the opposition leader.

• A regional election was held in the Basque country on May 13, 2001. The Socialists received 17.8% of the vote, but ended up losing one seat. The Socialists and the PP had formed an alliance against the ruling Basque political movements, but the Basque movement's candidates won anyway. Following the election, Nicolás Redondo Terreros, the Basque Socialist leader during the election, was replaced by Patxi López, who had actively supported Zapatero during his campaign to become Secretary General.

• On October 21, 2001, Galicia held a regional election. The PP, led by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, obtained a new, absolute majority. The PSOE increased its seats from 15 to 17.

• On May 25, 2003, regional elections were held across much of Spain. The PSOE received a larger share of the popular vote.

• On November 16, 2003 a regional election was held in Catalonia. Two days before, Zapatero had predicted a historic victory for the Catalan Socialist Party. The final results were 46 seats for a centre-right wing nationalist Catalan party called CiU (ten fewer than 1999), 42 for the PSOE (ten fewer than 1999), 23 (eleven more than in 1999) for the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), a pro-independence party, 15 for the PP (three more than 1999) and 9 (six more than in 1999) for the green-left wing Iniciative for Catalonia . Although the PSOE results were worse than in the previous election, it finally took hold of the regional government after almost 20 years of control of the Institutions by CiU thanks to an alliance with ERC and the other left-wing party. The PSOE alliance with a pro-independence party was very controversial. Socialist supporters have argued that the Socialist strategy was a consequence of the party's openness to other points of views and cultures, which they have sometimes compared with what they even define as anti-Catalan policies of the PP.

The General Election

Entering the general election on March 14, 2004, opinion polls favoured the PP, which was hoping to regain its absolute majority. However, Zapatero's PSOE won, both in terms of number of votes and number of congressional seats. It is generally accepted that the Madrid Bombings on March 11, 2004 three days before the elections, and the management of that crisis by the PP's government, were a factor in the PSOE's victory.

Platforms and debates

During the campaign, Zapatero harshly criticised the PP for its management of the Prestige crisis, its support of the war in Iraq, and the high cost of housing. His electoral promises included building 180,000 new houses or flats every year, the preservation of a balanced budget but with a more flexible approach, bilingual education, one computer for every two students and more money for R&D. Mariano Rajoy, the new leader of the PP after Aznar's retirement, and who was competing with Zapatero for the top job relied upon the success of the Spanish economy since 1996 and attacked Zapatero's possible alliances with parties like the communist United Left and the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia.

The lack of debates between the candidates in the campaign also became a major point of contention. Zapatero proposed a face-to-face encounter to Rajoy, but the PP's candidate demanded that the other main leaders, Gaspar Llamazares, leader of the party United Left, and Josep-Lluis Carod Rovira, head of the Republican Left of Catalonia, also attend the debate. In the end, no debate took place, with both candidates blaming each other for the impasse.

Madrid attacks of March 11, 2004

On Thursday, March 11, 2004, the largest terrorist attack in recent Spanish history took place in central Madrid. Several commuters' trains were bombed, resulting in 191 deaths and thousands of injuries. The attacks took place three days before the General Election. All electoral activities were suspended.

Most people, including the PP government, Zapatero, and the majority of the population initially believed the attacks were the work of the Basque organisation ETA, although ETA always denied any links with the attacks. Aznar's government even asked for a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning ETA by name. Later in the day, an audio tape in Arabic was found in a van near a railway station where the terrorists had boarded the trains. The next day, Aznar declared that all of the possibilities were being investigated [4], although he still believed that ETA was the most likely culprit.

The government's explanations did not satisfy many Spaniards, and it was accused of manipulating information about the real cause of the attacks. The virulence of the criticism increased as election day approached, heightened by events like the broadcasting of the film Asesinato en Febrero on March 13, 2004. Asesinato was a documentary about a murder committed by ETA, and was broadcast by the Spanish Public Television, TVE though it had not been previously scheduled. The showing of the documentary was seen as an attempt to influence public opinion.

On March 13, 2004, the day before the election which is known as "reflection day", demonstrations protesting against the government's "manipulation" took place in front of PP offices across Spain. The demonstrators were summoned by text messages sent from mobile phones. The PP later accused the PSOE of having organised the demonstrations and even of having sent text messages; such a claim is serious since demonstrations are forbidden on reflection day. The accusation has never been seriously investigated as there was never enough evidence to start a formal investigation.

The next day, March 14, Zapatero won the election, obtaining 164 seats. The PP obtained 148. The PSOE could not fully enjoy its triumph because of the sadness of what had happened just three days before. Despite the fact that Zapatero had won the election, he lacked the necessary majority needed to ensure his appointment as Prime Minister (176 seats are needed). Zapatero began negotiating with possible coalition partners, eventually gaining the support of the United Left and the Republican Left of Catalonia. This was and is not a permanent coalition, so before every major vote the Socialists negotiate with the other parties. Zapatero became the first Prime Minister to have an equal number of male and female ministers in his cabinet.

The effects of the attacks

Today it is widely accepted that the attacks had an impact on the election. How far it influenced the results is widely debated. The two schools are:

• The attacks changed the electoral winner. A sufficient number of voters decided to vote for the PSOE either because they disliked what they see as the "manipulation" of Aznar's government or because they did not want to suffer the consequences of a foreign policy they disliked.
• The attacks did change the result but not the winner. The PSOE was going to win but with fewer votes.

One conspiracy theory holds that the attacks were planned to cause a Socialist victory. The "March 4 theory", defended, among others, by José María Aznar, states that the attacks would have taken place on March 4 if the election had been scheduled for March 7. There is no definitive evidence behind the theory, but there are some non-conclusive clues: For example, the first question Jamal Zougam, one of the first arrested suspects, asked when he arrived at the courthouse on March 15, 2004 was: "Who won the election?"

On June 13, 2004, three months after the General Election, the election for the European Parliament took place. The PSOE won a plurality of 25 out of 54 seats against 24 for the PP. Although José Borrell was the official candidate, Zapatero played an important role in that campaign. The new triumph seemed to dissipate the doubts about the causes of his previous victory, though the Socialist victory was extremely narrow. It was the first time in Spanish politics that a party who won a general election drew with the opposition party in a new national election (EU) three months later.

In his book 11-M. La venganza, Casimiro Abadillo, a well-known Spanish journalist working for the prominent Spanish newspaper El Mundo, reported that before the General Election, Zapatero had told the El Mundo's director, Pedro J. Ramirez, that two suicide bombers had been found among the victims. This was subsequently found to be false. When, in December 2004, Zapatero was questioned before the Investigative Committee created to investigate the attacks, he declared that he did not remember what he had said [5].

Prime ministership: domestic policy

Much of Zapatero's legislation has focused on social issues, including divorce and homosexual marriage. He 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 and church-state issues

The legalisation of same-sex marriage (became law on July 1st, 2005) includes adoption rights as well as other rights that were available only to heterosexual couples. The recognition of homosexual marriage, the loosening of laws restricting divorce, the rumours about legalising euthanasia, new regulations regulating the teaching of religion in schools, and some attempts to change the manner in which the government treats the finances of the Catholic Church are all factors that are contributing to the growing tension between the Socialist government and the Roman Catholic Church.

Gender violence

The first law passed by his government was against gender violence. At first, the text was intended to protect only women, leaving out legal protection of other victims like children, elders or men. According to the General Council of the Judicial Power (Consejo General del Poder Judicial), that stance made the initial draft unconstitutional as it discriminated citizens for their sex. Finally, the text was changed and the term 'especially vulnerable victim' substituted that of 'woman' in the articles defining the new punishments established by the law. After that change, it was unanimously approved by parliament. (Text of the law.)

Regional territorial tensions

Zapatero has often declared that his government will not allow regional nationalists to endanger Spanish unity. This comment probably arose due to his party's alliances with parties like Republican Left of Catalonia.

On 13 November 2003 in a mass meeting in the Olimpic Stadium, Palau de Sant Jordi of Barcelona during the election campaign that took Pasqual Maragall to the Generalitat, Rodríguez Zapatero pronounced the famous promise to approve the Statute of Catalonia:

I will support the reform of the Statute of Catalonia that the Parliament of Catalonia approves.[6]

The biggest rejection of Spanish unity has come from Juan José Ibarretxe [7] - the head of the Basque Regional Government. His Ibarretxe Plan is a reform of the statute now regulating the Basque Autonomous Community considered almost equivalent to a declaration of independence by its opponents. The plan was drafted by the Basque regional government and approved by the regional legislature in spite of the opposition of the PSOE and the PP. The PP pressured Zapatero to prevent the vote from taking place, but Zapatero, insisted on debating and voting on it. The Spanish National Parliament rejected the plan, as was expected. The plan then became a major campaign issue in the Basque parliamentary election held on April 17, where its main proponent, the Basque Nationalist Party, suffered an important loss of votes. Zapatero has stated that he will support in the national parliament any statute reform supported by two-thirds of the Basque parliament.

In October 2005, a controversial proposal to reform the Catalan statute arrived at the Spanish parliament after being passed in Catalonia. Zapatero, who has often expressed his support for a change of the statute (although does not support entirely the proposal as it has been originally drafted), 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.

Public housing

One of Zapatero's electoral promises was to increase government support for public subsidized housing. Housing prices have increased largely in Spain, mostly since 2001. For that purpose he created a new ministry. The Minister of Housing (Ministerio de la Vivienda) has declared that its intention is not to reduce housing prices but to allow people to obtain a house more easily. In his first year as prime minister the cost of buying a house has actually increased around 17% on average, a situation the government defends by saying that the increase is still lower than that under the previous government [8].

Spanish Civil War issues

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-president María Teresa Fernández de la Vega. Critics accused him of deliberately forgetting incidents in Republican territory perpetrated by Republicans against Franco supporters. Supporters claim that the emphasis is justified, since it was Nationalist victims that were mostly honoured during the 35 years of Franco's rule.

On March 17, 2005, Zapatero's government controversially ordered the removal of the last statue of Francisco Franco that was still in Madrid[9].

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, which has not yet been passed by the Parliament. The project is opposed by the People Party, the Catholic Church, the Muslim community, several parents associations and an important part of the educational community, often for disparate reasons. The complaints against the reform include the limits it imposes upon the parent's freedom to choose a school, the decrease in academic status of the voluntary religious education, the introduction of a compulsory course ("Education for Citizenship") and the general ineffectiveness (in their view) of the reform to combat bad academic results. The last complaint is underlined by the fact that Spain's education system has ranked poorly amongst the developed countries over the last few years.

On Saturday November 12, 2005, a demonstration took place in Madrid against the reform. It was attended by about 400,000 citizens according to the National Police, 1,500,000 according to the Regional Government of Madrid (controlled by the Popular Party) and two million according to the organisers of the demonstration. Despite of the disparity in the numbers, it seems to have been one of the most important demonstrations against the Socialist Government since it took office.

After the demonstration took place the government held a series of meetings with many of the organisations 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 in staunch opposition to it.

Foreign policy

File:Zapateronividhia1.jpg

With Gerhard Schröder and Jacques Chirac.

Zapatero favours a multilateral approach to foreign policy with the United Nations playing a fundamental role. He has also affirmed his view that a strict respect for international law is essential for keeping peace; this is a clear reference to the Iraq war. 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 difers 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 emphasise its friendship with European countries like Italy, the UK, and Poland in order to counterbalance French and German power within the EU.

European Union

Zapatero has preferred to focus on what he considers to be the core countries of the EU, mainly France and Germany, which would join Spain in forming a strong block as a counterbalance to American power. On March 1 2005 he became the first Spanish prime minister to speak to the French National Assembly.

With regard to the European Constitution, Zapatero accepted the distribution of power proposed by Germany and France. This decision, however, in effect abandoned Poland, whose government had aligned with Aznar on the matter. Under the new distribution of power Spain was certain to lose influence, but Zapatero accepted it regardless. After signing the treaty in Rome with the other leaders, Spain held the first referendum to ratify it on February 20, 2005. The Constitution was backed by the two major Spanish parties: Zapatero's Socialists and the opposition PP. Over 75% voted in favour of the Constitution Treaty, but the turnout was the lowest in Spanish history at only 41%. [10]

Germany

Zapatero openly supported SPD candidate, former Chancellor, Schröder before the German election on September 18, 2005. He also declared that Angela Merkel, the Christian Democrat candidate, would "never become the Chancellor (Kanzler) of Germany."

Poland

In December 2004, Zapatero, after attending sessions of the Parliamentary Investigative Committee about the Madrid Bombings for 15 hours, decided to suspend meetings scheduled in Poland for the next day. He commented that, "he felt a little tired." Some days later, Zapatero was scheduled to meet the Polish prime minister at a European summit in Brussels. This meeting did not take place, officially because the Polish delegation's plane suffered an unexpected delay. Some feared that these events would serve to aggravate relations already damaged after Zapatero's decision to change the Spanish stance regarding the European Constitution. However, some time later, an official meeting meant a reconciliation of both nations.

Iraq and relations with the U.S.

During the electoral campaign, Zapatero promised to recall the troops in Iraq if control over that country was not given to the United Nations after June 30, 2004. On gaining power he announced on April 18, 2004 that the return of the 1300 Spanish troops stationed in Iraq would start immediately. The last soldier returned the same day the European political campaign began in May 2004.

The withdrawal aroused some international criticism, as many of those who supported the war feared that it could be perceived as a victory for the Iraqi opposition. Then US presidential candidate Senator John Kerry joined President Bush in asking Zapatero not to recall the Spanish soldiers. 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 spend resources on international missions.

On June 8, 2004, with the withdrawal already finished, Zapatero's government voted in favour 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 George W. Bush, and the American ambassador to Spain refused to go to the annual National Holiday military parade in protest against Zapatero's comments.

In December, 2005, it became known that Zapatero's Governement had allowed the Spanish frigate Alvaro de Bazán to participate together with the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in military manoeuvres in the Persian Gulf, supposedly having taken part in Operation Iraqi Freedom from September to December that year. The Spanish Government claimed that those manoeuvres were not related to the conflict in Iraq, but some of the Spanish media and officials in the PP have contended just the opposite, introducing doubts about Zapatero's sincerity in relation to the Iraq war.

Gibraltar and relations with the UK

On the issue of Gibraltar, Zapatero initially complained about Gibraltar's tercentenary celebrations. Zapatero's government claimed to have considered those celebrations a direct provocation due to the tensions caused by his decision to withdraw troops from the American and British-led coalition in Iraq, though the Gibraltans claim it was a straightforward 300 year celebration.

At the end of 2004, Zapatero decided to change his policy and accept the participation of Gibraltar as a partner in the discussions about the future of the British colony. The opposition PP considered the decision a surrender of Spanish rights over the colony, but Zapatero justified it as a new way to solve the 300 hundred-year old problem, since the UK government had committed itself to honour Gibraltar people wishes, with over 90% of them having voted to remain a British colony in a recent referendum.

Latin America

Zapatero has approached socialist leaders such as Fidel Castro of Cuba, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia. He has played an important role in the improvement in relations between Cuba's government and the European Union. At the end of March 2005, Zapatero went to Venezuela to cement a deal that would allow for the sales of military ships and aircraft valued at about $1.7 billion. The decision was criticised by both the US and the opposition PP. Zapatero has claimed that the equipment has no offensive power. In January 2006, US Department of Defense blocked the sales of the transport planes, arguing they contain 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.

References

• (OCAM) Óscar Campillo Madrigal. [Zapatero. Presidente a la Primera] 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
• Catalan constitutions
• Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

External links

Official

• Template:Es icon Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
• Template:Es icon 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
• Copy of the editorial of the Wall Street Journal "The Accidental Prime Minister", 25 November 2004
• Alternet, 11 April 2005, "Zapatero Steps Up" (first year in office)
• Spain Herald, Spanish on-line newspaper in English, opposed to Zapatero's policies.

In Spanish

• Template:Es icon Extended biography by CIDOB Foundation (Linked with the PSOE)
• Template:Es icon Biography in Spanish of Zapatero
• Template:Es icon Video of the Zapatero's promise of supporting the Catalan Statute
• Template:Es icon Website highly critical of Zapatero
• Template:Es icon Personal blog about political irregularities in Galicia, ruled by Emilio Pérez Tourinho, member of Zapatero's Workers' Socialist Party

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