José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

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[José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero] ([Media helphelp]·[info]) (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 legalizing same-sex marriages. He also presided over the Spanish Parliament's approval of the new (and controversial) Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia.

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

Contents

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 captain who was killed by Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War.

Zapatero grew up in León. At the University of that city, he studied law, graduating in 1982. While working there as an associate professor, he was elected to Parliament in 1986.

Zapatero is married to Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz, the daughter of a military officer (Rafael Espinosa Armendáriz) . Zapatero has two daughters, Laura (1993) and Alba (1995). Zapatero is fluent only in Spanish and has some knowledge of English, despite the fact that his father sent him to Britain for several summers to help him learn English.

Zapatero enters politics

Zapatero, accompanied by his family, attended his first political rally on August 15, 1976. It was a meeting organized by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) in Gijón. At the rally, Felipe González, the Socialist leader and future Prime Minister of Spain, gave a stirring speech, which had a profound impact upon Zapatero. He enrolled later the party in 1979, and in 1982 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. In 1988, Zapatero was appointed Secretary General of the PSOE in León. He was reelected in 1994 and in 1997.

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 received 405).

Opposition leader

Early clashes

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. Zapatero repeatedly criticized the government's management of the crisis arguing that it was out of control.

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 criticized Aznar for his inability to try to make the British government to move the submarine elsewhere.

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 against the American-led invasion.

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 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.

Terrorism

In 2000 after several fatal terrorist attacks by the Basque terrorist organization ETA, Zapatero proposed the "Pacto de las Libertades contra el Terrorismo," or the "Pact of the Liberties against Terrorism." At first, some prominent Popular Party politicians, like Mariano Rajoy, opposed Zapatero's proposal saying it accomplished little, but the agreement was signed in December of 2000. The main aim of the accord was to foster unity between the People's Party and the Socialists in the fight against terrorism. It included clauses to ensure that policies towards terrorism would not be used as a weapon for political gain.

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. Zapatero and many technicians blamed the government's management during the accident, especially the government's decision to pull the tanker away. 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.

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 where the Socialists lost one seat. On October 21, 2001, Galicia held a regional election. The People's Party, led by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, obtained a new, absolute majority. The Socialist Party increased its seats from 15 to 17. On May 25, 2003, regional elections were held across much of Spain. The Socialist Party received a larger share of the popular vote. On November 16, 2003 a regional election was held in Catalonia. The results of the Socialist Party were worse than expected but it could finally take hold of the regional government after almost 20 years of control of the Institutions by the centrist Catalan nationalist coalition, Convergència i Unió thanks to an alliance with pro-Catalan independence party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and the green- left party Iniciativa per Catalunya.

The General Election

Entering the general election on March 14, 2004, opinion polls were favorable to the People's Party which was hoping to regain its absolute majority or lose it narrowly. 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 the crisis by the Popular's government, were a factor in the PSOE's victory, as many Spaniards felt deceived by Aznar's cabinet.

Zapatero won the election, obtaining 164 seats. The People's Party obtained 148. Despite the fact that Zapatero had won the election, he lacked the necessary majority 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 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.

Prime ministership: domestic policy

Much of 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.

Same-sex marriage

The legalization 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.

Regional terrorism and 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. This comment was aroused, probably, 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.[link]

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.

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[link].

Reform of the education system

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

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

Foreign policy

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

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

European Union

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

Iraq and relations with the U.S.

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

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

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

Latin America

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

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.

External links

Official

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]
[Spain Herald], Spanish on-line newspaper in English, opposed to Zapatero's policies.

In Spanish

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