José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

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{{Infobox_President | name=José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero | nationality=cuba | image=Zapatero.jpg | order= | term_start=April 17, 2004 | term_end=present | predecessor=José María Aznar | successor=Incumbent | birth_date=August 4, 1960 | birth_place=Valladolid | dead=alive | death_date= | death_place= | spouse=Sonsoles Espinosa | party=PSOE | vicepresident=María Teresa Fernández de la Vega and Pedro Solbes }} Template:Audio (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.

On March 23, 2006 he had a 58.0% approval rating while the opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, held a 37.5% approval rating.[1]

Contents

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Personal life and youth

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Rodríguez 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 captain who was slaughtered by Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War.

Rodríguez Zapatero grew up in León and began his schooling 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. He later went on to study law at the University of León, graduating in 1982.

After graduating, Rodríguez Zapatero worked as a teacher 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 Rodríguez Zapatero's dual position as a professor and an MP were incompatible.

On January 27, 1990, Rodríguez Zapatero married Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz, the daughter of a military officer (Rafael Espinosa Armendáris) . Rodríguez Zapatero is also the father of two young girls, Laura (1993) and Alba (1995). His family has never appeared before the Spanish media, and there are no recent images of his two young daughters. Rodríguez Zapatero is fluent only in Spanish and has some rough basic knowledge of English, despite the fact that his father sent him to Britain for several summers to help him learn English.

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Rodríguez Zapatero enters politics

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Rodríguez 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 Rodríguez Zapatero.

Rodríguez Zapatero's family had traditionally been attracted to the Spanish Communist Party, as it was the only well-organised leftist 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, Rodríguez 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. Rodríguez 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, Rodríguez 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, Rodríguez Zapatero defined himself as a "left-wing conservative".

Rodríguez Zapatero was reelected 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, Rodríguez Zapatero kept his seat at the Congress of Deputies. The next year, Rodríguez Zapatero was again reelected as the PSOE Secretary General of León.

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Leader of the Socialists

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

Rodríguez 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. On June 25, 2000 Rodríguez Zapatero announced his intention to run for the Secretary General at a meeting in León. In his speech, he made a declaration of principles:

  1. To build a society that would accept foreigners.
  2. To give priority to education and to create good jobs.
  3. To provide parents with more time to spend with their children and take care of elders.
  4. To promote culture.
  5. To convert Spain into a country admired for helping those with more needs.
  6. To help those with initiative and enterprising qualities.
  7. To foster democracy, to lend distinction to politics and to promote deeper values over temporary interests.

Rodríguez 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.) Rodríguez Zapatero won by a small margin (414 votes out of 995; José Bono received 405).

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Opposition leader

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At first, Rodríguez Zapatero claimed 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 improve in popularity, he was nicknamed "Bambi," especially in the first months after being appointed General Secretary.

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Early clashes

Rodríguez Zapatero's first clash with the government was about the perceived inability of the government 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. Rodríguez 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 Rodríguez Zapatero criticised Aznar for his inability to try to make the British government to 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 Rodríguez Zapatero travelled to Morocco after the Moroccan government expelled the Spanish ambassador. Javier Arenas, a prominent member of the PP, accused him of not being loyal to Spanish interests. Rodríguez Zapatero rejected this claim and argued that he was actually trying to help solve the crisis.

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Iraq and foreign policy

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

Rodríguez Zapatero's first clash with the U.S. was also related to his 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.

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. Rodríguez Zapatero blamed Aznar and his government for neglecting the plane insurance and safety. 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 accident became similar to the Prestige in the political arena.

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ETA

In 2000 after several mortal attacks by the organisation ETA, Rodríguez Zapatero proposed the "Pacto de las Libertades contra el Terrorismo," or the "Pact of the Liberties against terrorism." At first, some prominent the PP 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.

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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 Rodríguez Zapatero, nevertheless he chose to oppose to the PP and therefore to the National Plan.

Opposition to the scheme was led by Rodríguez Zapatero, environmental groups, the socialist regional government of Aragon, and citisens 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 to the north of needed 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 solve the problem of shortage of water suffered by the Region of Valencia, Murcia and the Province of Almería. Although the long awaited scheme was enacted into law under the government of Aznar, it was cancelled right away once Rodríguez Zapatero became Prime Minister.

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Prestige oil tanker accident

In November 2002, the oil tanker Prestige suffered an accident in international waters near Galicia, causing a large oil slick that damaged the coastlines of Galicia, other parts of northern Spain and Portugal, and the south Atlantic coast of France. Governmental authorities deemed the tanker to be irreparable, as it was very old and in a very bad state, and decided to tug it away from the coast as an attempt to minimise the damaging effects of the accident.

Rodríguez Zapatero and many technicians blamed the government's management during the accident, especially the decision to pull the tanker away from the coast. Rodríguez Zapatero argued that had the ship been allowed to enter a harbor, the worst of the catastrophe could have been prevented. The accident and its consequences became a major issue for the whole country, and perhaps the largest friction point (save the war in Iraq) entering the election of 2004. People from all parts of Spain came to the coast to help in the cleanup. The military forces showed up to help in the cleaning a few days after the accident occured.

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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. Rodríguez 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.

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Intermediate regional elections

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In the run up to the general election of March 2004, there were several regional elections during Rodríguez 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 Rodríguez Zapatero during his campaign to become Secretary General.
  • 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, Rodríguez 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 got worse results 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.
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The General Election

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Entering the general election on March 14, 2004, opinion polls were favorable to the PP which was hoping to regain its absolute majority or lose it narrowly. However, Rodríguez 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 the crisis by the popular's government, were a factor in the PSOE's victory.

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Platforms and debates

During the campaign, Rodríguez 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 180,000 new houses 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, banked on the success of the Spanish economy since 1996 and attacked Rodríguez 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. Rodríguez Zapatero proposed a face-to-face encounter to Rajoy, but the Popular Party's candidate demanded that Rodríguez Zapatero should be accompanied at least by who he considered to be his probable allies if he won the election: Gaspar Llamazares, leader of the party United Left, and Josep-Lluis Carod Rovira, head of the Republican Left of Catalonia. Finally, no debate took place and both candidates blamed each other for it.

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Madrid attacks of March 11, 2004

On Thursday, March 11, 2004, the largest terrorist attack (see 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings) in recent Spanish history took place in downtown Madrid. Several commuters' trains were bombed, resulting in 191 deaths and thousands of injuries. A shock ran throughout Spain and the Western world. The attacks took place three days before the General Election and all electoral activities were suspended.

Most people, including the PP government and Rodríguez Zapatero, initially claimed the attacks were the work of the Basque terrorist organisation ETA, although ETA always refused any links with the attacks. Aznar's government even asked for a UN Security Council resolution condemning ETA by name, which is unprecedented in international diplomacy. 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 [2], 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 Template:Ref.

On March 13, 2004, the day before the election which is known as reflection day, demonstrations protesting 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, on March 14, Rodríguez 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 Rodríguez Zapatero had won the election, he lacked the necessary majority needed to ensure his appointment as Prime Minister (176 are needed). Rodríguez 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. Rodríguez Zapatero became the first Prime Minister to have an equal number of male and female ministers in his cabinet.

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The effects of the attacks

Today it is widely accepted that the attacks had an impact on the electionTemplate:Ref. How 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.

A conspiracy theory is 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 again with 25 seats against 24 for the PP (out of 54). Although José Borrell was the official candidate, Rodríguez Zapatero played an important role in that campaign (as is usual in Spain). 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 the book "11-M. La venganza" by Casimiro Abadillo, a prominent Spanish journalist who works for the newspaper "El Mundo" (one of the most important Spanish newspapers), it is reported that, before the General Election, Zapatero told the director of that newspaper, Pedro J. Ramirez, that two suicide bombers had been found among the victims (something that now is proven false). When asked in December 2004 before the Investigative Committee created to investigate the attacks, Zapatero declared that he did not remember what he had said. [3]

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Prime ministership: domestic policy

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Much of Rodríguez Zapatero's work has been 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.

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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 rumors about a legalisation of euthanasia, new regulations regulating the teaching of religion in school, and some attempts to change the manner that 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. [4].

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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 citisens for its 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 approved by unanimity in the parliament. (Text of the law.)

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Regional territorial tensions

Rodríguez Zapatero has often declared that his government will not allow regional nationalists to endanger Spanish unity. This comment was aroused, probably, for his party 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 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.[5]

The biggest rejection of Spanish unity has come from Juan José Ibarretxe [6] - 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 Rodríguez Zapatero to prevent the vote from taking place, but Rodríguez 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. Rodríguez 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. Rodríguez 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.

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Public housing

One of the most important Rodríguez Zapatero's electoral promises was to make housing more accessible. 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 Rodríguez Zapatero's first year as prime minister the cost of buying a house has increased around 17% on average, a lower increase as in those before being appointed [7].

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Spanish Civil War remnants

In October 2004 Rodríguez 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. Some accused him of deliberately forgetting the incidents in Republican territory affecting right-wing victims, that were largely honored during the 35 years of the Franco's dictatorship. Rodríguez Zapatero's grandfather, in his will, called on family members to clear his name "when the time is right".

On March 17, 2005, Zapatero's government ordered to remove the last statue of the former dictator Francisco Franco that was still in Madrid[8].

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Reform of the education system

Just after he took office, Rodríguez 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 Citisenship") and the general ineffectiveness (in their view) of the reform to combat bad academic 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.

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 organizers 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.

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Foreign policy

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Rodríguez 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 to 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 Civilisations as a way to solve the world's problems.

Foreign policy is the area where Rodríguez 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 emphasise its friendship with European countries like Italy, the UK, and Poland in order to counterbalance French and German power within the EU.

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European Union

Rodríguez 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, Rodríguez Zapatero accepted the distribution of power proposed by Germany and France. This decision, however, in effect abandoned Poland, which had the same stance as that of the previous government under Aznar. Under the new distribution of power Spain was certain to lose influence, but Rodríguez Zapatero accepted it anyway. After signing up the treaty in Rome with the other leaders, Spain held the first referendum to ratify it, which was held on February 20, 2005. The Constitution was backed by the two major Spanish parties: Rodríguez Zapatero's Socialists and the opposition PP. Over 75% voted in favor of the Constitution Treaty, but the turnout was the lowest in Spanish history at only 41%. [9]

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Germany

Zapatero supported directly SPD candidate, former Chancellor, Schröder before the German election of September 18, 2005. He also declared that Angela Merkel, the Christian Democrat candidate, would never become the Chancellor (Kanzler) of Germany. According to some opinions, that might have affected German-Spanish relationships negatively.

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Poland

In December 2004, Rodríguez Zapatero, after attending sessions of the Parliamentary Investigative Committee about the Madrid Bombings for 15 hours, decided to suspend his meetings scheduled for the next day in Poland. He commented that "he felt a little tired." Some days later, Rodríguez Zapatero was scheduled to meet the Polish prime minister at a European summit in Brussels. This meeting did not take place either because the plane of the Polish leader was said to have suffered an unexpected delay. Some feared that these events served to aggravate relations that had already been damaged after Rodríguez 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.

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Iraq and relations with the U.S.

During the electoral campaign, Rodríguez Zapatero had promised to recall the troops in Iraq if control over that country was not given to the United Nations after June 30, 2004. He did declare that he did not intend to withdraw the Spanish troops before that date. In any case, on April 18, 2004, Rodríguez Zapatero announced that the return of the 1300 Spanish troops stationed in Iraq would start immediately. The last soldier was scheduled to be back the same day the European political campaign began in May 2004.

The withdrawal aroused a great deal of international criticism, as many feared that it could be perceived as a victory for terrorists. Then U.S. presidential candidate Senator John Kerry joined President Bush in asking Rodríguez Zapatero not to recall the Spanish soldiers. Some months later, Rodríguez Zapatero's government agreed to increase the number of Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan and to send troops to Haiti in an attempt to show a willingness to spend resources on international missions.

On June 8, 2004, with the withdrawal already finished, Rodríguez 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, Rodríguez 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 Rodríguez Zapatero's comments.

Relations between President Bush and Rodríguez Zapatero were still strained in fall of 2004. When Bush won re-election, Rodríguez Zapatero's congratulatory call did not get to the White House—unlike many other important world leaders' calls (such as Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac). Rodríguez Zapatero's message was later passed on by King Juan Carlos who visited Bush's Texas ranch a week after the US elections.

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 anti-socialist Spanish media and officials in the PP have contended just the opposite, introducing doubts about Zapatero's sincerity in relation to the Iraq war. [10] [11]

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Gibraltar and relations with the UK

On the issue of Gibraltar, Zapatero initially complained about Gibraltar's tercentenary celebrations. Rodríguez 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 a 300 hundred year old problem, since the UK government had committed itself to honour Gibraltar people wishes, over 90% of them having voted to remain a British colony in a recent referendum.

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Latin America

Another change in policy with regard to his predecessor is Zapatero's decision to approach socialist leaders such as Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. Zapatero has played an important role in the improvement of relations between Cuba's government and the European Union. At the end of March 2005, Rodríguez 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 U.S. and the opposition PP. Rodríguez 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.

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Notes

  1. Template:Note After the general election, Alfredo Urdaci, the head of the public news channel until the Socialist victory, declared the decision of broadcasting Asesinato en Febrero was made by Juan Menor, then director of TVE. Menor denied the accusation and kept his job until December 2004 when he was fired due to poor ratings. He was one of the few top executives who was not immediately removed by the new Socialist government. [12][13].
  2. Template:Note According to a poll published a year after the Madrid bombing in El Mundo, 70% of the Spaniards believed that the attacks contributed decisively to the Socialist victory.
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References

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See also

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External links

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Official

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Press

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In Spanish

Template:Start box {{incumbent succession box 

| title = Prime Minister of Spain
| before = José María Aznar
| start = 2004
| after =

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