José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

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José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Prime Minister of Spain
Incumbent
Assumed office April 17, 2004
Vice President(s)	María Teresa Fernández de la Vega (First) Pedro Solbes (Second)
Preceded by	José María Aznar
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	August 04, 1960 (age 46) Valladolid, Valladolid, Castile-León, Spain
Political party	PSOE
Spouse	Sonsoles Espinosa

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (help·info) (IPA: [xo'se lu'is ro'ðɾigeθ θapa'teɾo]) (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. Controversial 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.^[1] He also presided over the Spanish Parliament's approval of the Controversial Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia.^[2]

[edit] Personal life and youth

Main article: The early years of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (1960-2000)

[edit] 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 ^[11], 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 ^[3].

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. ^[4]

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" [OCAM p. 71].

He admired as a University student the agrarian reform by Mao Tse-tung and favored the Soviet Regime ^[5].

After graduating, Zapatero worked as a teaching assistant of constitutional law in the University of León until 1986. He has declared that the only activity that attracts him besides politics is teaching. ^[6]

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 for undisclosed reasons. [OCAM p. 82]

[edit] 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". [OCAM p. 29 fol.].

In 1977, the year of the first democratic elections after Franco, Zapatero supported both the Communist and Socialist Parties. He posted posters of both. [OCAM p. 111]

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 [OCAM p. 39]. González answered advising him to abandon his conservative [leftist] 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. [OCAM p. 130] 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 finally elected mayor belonged to Alianza Popular.

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". [OCAM p. 141]

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 [OCAM p. 150].

Zapatero was accused himself of many irregularities while leading the Socialist Party in his region. Moreover, 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.[OCAM p. 102 fol.]

In 1994, the National Conference of the Socialist Party (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. [OCAM p. 188]

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. [OCAM p. 100 & 192]

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. [OCAM p. 196]

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). [OCAM p. 203]

In 1998, the first and only primaries celebrated within the PSOE took place. There were two candidates: Joaquín Almunia and Josep 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. [OCAM p. 210 fol.]

The existence of two leaders Joaquín Almunia, Secretary General, and Josep 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.

[edit] 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). [OCAM p. 232]

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." [OCAM p. 234]

The members of Nueva Vía were, on average, 40 years old. Among the most prominent of them were Zapatero, Trinidad Jiménez, Jesús Caldera, Jordi Sevilla, José Blanco, Antonio Cuevas, Enrique Martínez, etc. [OCAM p. 229].

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. [OCAM p. 236]

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.) [OCAM p. 237]

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 [OCAM p. 238-239]. 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 [OCAM p. 244]. In his speech, he stated what can be considered his declaration of principles [OCAM p. 245]:

To build a society that would accept all foreigners notwithstanding their color or cultural level.
To give priority to education and to create good jobs for youngsters.
To provide parents with more time to spend with their children and in taking care of their elders.
To promote culture and its creators, making it possible for them to grab the spotlight from those aimed only at economic interests.
To convert Spain into a country admired for helping those with more needs.
To force the government to help those with initiative and enterprising qualities.
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. [OCAM p. 253]

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 [Member of Parliament|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, 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 [12]). 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 [OCAM p. 287].

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. [OCAM p. 201]

[edit] 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).

[edit] Opposition leader

Main article: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's years as an opposition leader

[edit] 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 "[Bambi]" 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 ^[13]. 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 [14]. As a result, a new term has become popular: guerracivilismo [15] (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. [16]

[edit] 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. [17] [18].

[edit] 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 ^[19].

[edit] The General Election

Main article: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the 2004 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 [20] 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 hypothetical 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.

Nevertheless, the Popular Party and his former leader, Aznar, have argued that the bombings of March 11 were not exclusively the deed of a Radical Islamist cell, but that ETA may have been involved and facilitated materials and know-how. Moreover, Zapatero's rather friendly policy towards ETA has been construed by some commentarists as payback for ETA's arguably unwanted services on March 11, which made it possible for Zapatero to become Prime Minister.

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 interfere with the last day of campaign when, according to the Spanish electoral system regulations, any kind of political propaganda is prohibited.

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.

[edit] Prime ministership: domestic policy

Main article: Domestic policy of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Much of Zapatero's work has been on social issues, including gender-violence and discrimination [21], divorce [22] and same-sex marriage [23]. The most recent social issue tackled has been the Dependency Law [24], 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.

[edit] 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 [25].

[edit] 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. [26]

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.

[edit] 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 [27].

[edit] 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 was opposed by the People's Party, the Catholic Church, the Muslim community, The Catholic Confederation of 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.

[edit] ETA

ETA declared what it described as a "permanent ceasefire" that began on midnight 23 March 2006.^[7] Zapatero informed the Congress that steps would be taken to negotiate with ETA in order to end its terrorism while denying that there would be any political price for ETA's end. ^[8] Nonetheless, the Popular Party grew concerned about the possibility of political cessions being made to the terrorists to stop their ways, and actively opposed anything other than the possibility of an organized surrender and dismantling of ETA, refusing to support any kind of negotiation. ^[9] On 30 December 2006 the ceasefire was broken when a car bomb exploded in Madrid's International Airport, Barajas and ETA claimed authorship. Following this, Zapatero gave orders to halt initiatives towards a negotiation with ETA. ^[10] Demonstrations across Spain followed the next day, most condemning the attack, others condemning the Government's policies and a minority even questioning the authorship of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. ^[11]

A massive rally in Madrid followed on February 25, promoted by the Victims of Terrorism Association (AVT in Spanish acronym), refusing what is perceived as concessions from the government to the separatist band. ^[12]

In March 10, 2007 a new massive rally was held in Madrid gathering -depending on the source's relationship to the government- between 342,000 and over two million people.^[13] This demonstration was organized by opposition party PP and backed by the AVT and several other associations of victims, with the stated purpose of refusing the release of a Basque jailed separatist and accusing Zapatero's government of surrendering to terrorism^[14]

Zapatero and his party's stand on the matter was not supported by the majority of Spaniards, according to several polls.^[15]

[edit] Immigration

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 ^[16]^[17].

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 ^[18]^[19]^[20]

[edit] Foreign policy

Main article: Foreign policy of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

[edit] Areas of foreign policy action

[edit] Iraq

Before being elected, Zapatero opposed the American policy in regard to Iraq pursued by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar. During the electoral campaign Zapatero had promised to withdraw the troops if control in Iraq was not passed to the United Nations after June 30 (the ending date of the initial Spanish military agreement with the multinational coalition that had overthrown Saddam Hussein). Zapatero declared that he did not intend to withdraw the Spanish troops before that date after being questioned about the issue by the People's Party's leader Mariano Rajoy in his inauguration parliamentary debate as Prime Minister.

On April 19, 2004 Zapatero announced the withdrawal of the 1300 Spanish troops in Iraq ([28]).

The decision aroused both international criticism and support worldwide, critics fearing that the terrorists could perceive it as a victory obtained due to the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, while others argued that it was the policy pursued by Aznar that encouraged terrorism. John Kerry, then Democratic party candidate for the American Presidency, asked Zapatero not to retire the Spanish soldiers. Some months after retiring the troops, the Zapatero government agreed to increase the number of Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan and to send troops to Haiti to show the Spanish Government's willingness to spend resources on international missions of which it approved.

On June 8, 2004, with the withdrawal already complete, Zapatero's government voted in the UN Security Council in favor of the Resolution 1546 where the following could be read:

"The Security Council, Recognizing the importance of international support [...] for the people of Iraq [...], Affirming the importance of international assistance in reconstruction and development of the Iraqi economy [...],

15. Requests Member States and international and regional organizations to contribute assistance to the multinational force, including military forces, as agreed with the Government of Iraq, to help meet the needs of the Iraqi people for security and stability, humanitarian and reconstruction assistance, and to support the efforts of UNAMI;"

[edit] South America

An important change in Spanish foreign policy was Zapatero's decision to approach left-wing leaders such as Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Zapatero has played an important role in the improvement of the relation between the Cuban government and the European Union.

At the end of March 2005, Zapatero traveled to Venezuela to draw a deal to sell Hugo Chávez's regime military ship and aircraft worth around US$1000 million. The decision was criticized by both the American government and the People's Party.

After the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia, Spain was one of the countries the new president visited during his first international tour.

[edit] United States

The relations between José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and George W. Bush have been difficult, mostly as a result to Zapatero's opposition to the war in Iraq.

In October 2003, during the Hispanic Day military parade held in Madrid, then opposition leader Zapatero remained seated when a U.S. Marine Corps honor guard carrying the American flag walked past Zapatero and other VIPs. Everybody else stood as with the rest of the guest foreign armies representations.^[21]Zapatero intended this as a protest before the Iraq war which was under way; his gesture caused a short lived polemics about its convenience in the context of a protocolary act. As a result of this, after Zapatero was elected, American troops were instructed by their government not take part during the traditional military parade on the Spanish national holiday in 2004 and in 2005, something which they used to, as both the Spanish and American armies are part of joint humanitarian missions in places like Afghanistan and elsewhere; American troops returned to the military parade in 2006; this time Zapatero, being the Spanish premier, stood still.^[22]

Zapatero publicly stated his support for John Kerry as a candidate running in the American Presidential Election in November 2004. After the election took place, Bush did not return Zapatero's congratulation phone call though the White House firmly denied that Bush's intention was to snub the Spanish prime minister. [29]) Meanwhile Zapatero has repeatedly insisted that Spain's relations with the United States are good.

Later on, during an official visit to Tunisia shortly after Zapatero was elected, he asked all of the countries with troops in Iraq to withdraw their soldiers. This declaration moved the U.S. president George W. Bush to send a discontent letter to the Spanish premier.

[edit] European Union

Zapatero's predecessor, José María Aznar, defended the combination of a strong alliance with the United States with a peripheral European strategy where Spain would emphasize its friendship with less central European countries such as Italy, the United Kingdom or Poland in order to compensate French and German power.

Zapatero has changed this policy to focus mainly on France and Germany to try and form, alongside Spain, a strong block opposed to American preponderance and aimed at directing European destiny. According to Zapatero's supporters the new policy will consist in fostering the Spanish links with the core European countries.

Zapatero meets former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and French President Jacques Chirac

In the writing of what was to be the European Constitution Zapatero accepted the distribution of power proposed by countries such as Germany and France. After signing the treaty in Rome together with other leaders, he decided to call for a referendum, which was held on February 20, 2005. It was the first in Europe, a fact highly publicized by Zapatero's government. The turnout was the lowest in Spanish history, only 41%. Of those voters, 75% voted in favor of the European Constitution, which had been defended by the most important parties (including the Socialist Party and the People's Party) [30] but was then given the touch of death when France voted to reject it months later in its own referendum.

[edit] France and Germany

On 1 March 2005, Zapatero became the first Spanish prime minister to speak to the French National Assembly.

Zapatero directly supported the 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, something which she actually did. According to some opinions, that might have affected German-Spanish relationships negatively.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Gibraltar

Zapatero initially took a strong line with the United Kingdom, complaining at Gibraltar's celebrations for the tercentenary of its independence from Spain and rejecting the Gibraltarians' requests for Spain to recognize its right to self-determination.

At the end of 2004, Zapatero decided to change his policy and to become the first Spanish prime minister to accept the participation of Gibraltar as a partner on the same level as Spain and the United Kingdom in the discussions both countries hold regularly about the colony. The decision was criticized as a surrender of the Spanish rights to sovereignty over the British colony by the Spanish opposition. Zapatero justified it as a new way to solve a 300-hundred-year-old problem.

[edit] Israel and Palestine

See: 2006 Franco-Italian-Spanish Middle East Peace Plan.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

(OCAM) Óscar Campillo Madrigal. Zapatero. Presidente a la Primera. 1st ed. updated. (La Esfera de los Libros, Spain, April 2004). ISBN 84-9734-193-7.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

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Preceded by José María Aznar	Prime Minister of Spain 2004 – present	Incumbent
Preceded by Interim Political Committee	Secretary General Spanish Socialist Workers Party 2000 – present	Incumbent

Prime Ministers of Spain since 1931

Second Republic: Niceto Alcalá-Zamora • Manuel Azaña • Alejandro Lerroux • Diego Martínez Barrio • Alejandro Lerroux • Ricardo Samper • Alejandro Lerroux • Joaquín Chapaprieta • Manuel Portela Valladares • Manuel Azaña • Augusto Barcía Trelles • Santiago Casares Quiroga • Diego Martínez Barrio • José Giral • Francisco Largo Caballero • Juan Negrín

Francoism: Francisco Franco • Luis Carrero Blanco • Torcuato Fernández-Miranda* • Carlos Arias Navarro • Fernando de Santiago y Díaz*

Modern Spain: Adolfo Suárez • Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo • Felipe González • José María Aznar • José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
* denotes acting

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
The early years of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (1960-2000) \| José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's years as an opposition leader \| José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the Local and Regional Elections of 2003 \| José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the 2004 General Election \| Domestic policy of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero \| Foreign policy of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

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