José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
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| José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office April 17, 2004 |
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| Vice President(s) | María Teresa Fernández de la Vega (First) Pedro Solbes (Second) |
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| Preceded by | José María Aznar |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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| Born | August 4, 1960 Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain |
| Political party | PSOE |
| Spouse | Sonsoles Espinosa |
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (born August 4, 1960 in Valladolid) is the President of the Government 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 new and controversial Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia.[1]
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[edit] Personal life and youth
Zapatero was born in Valladolid to an affluent family with a long history of socialist politics. His father, Juan Rodríguez García-Lozano, is a prominent lawyer. His paternal grandfather, Juan Rodríguez Lozano, was a captain of the Second Spanish Republic Army. Captain Rodríguez took part, under General Franco command, in the conquer and repression of Asturias, where a revolution unleashed in 1934 and was executed by Nationalist troops for refusing to join Francisco Franco's rebellion in the first stage of 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).
[edit] 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 in the party later 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.
[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 received 405).
[edit] Opposition leader
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] ETA
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 2000. The main aim of the agreement was to foster unity between the People's Party and the Socialists in the fight against terrorism. It included clauses to try to ensure that policies towards terrorism would not be used as a weapon for political gain.
[edit] 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 as well as a huge swathe of Spanish citizens blamed the People's Party government's management during the accident, especially their decision to order the tanker to move away from the coast in the early stages of the crisis, a decision that proved disastrous. 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) in the 2004 election.
[edit] 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.
[edit] The General Election
Entering the general election on March 14, 2004, opinion polls were slightly favorable to the People's Party which was hoping to regain its absolute majority or lose it narrowly. But still, the error margin of the polls was smaller than the difference between both parties, thus leaving room for a technical draw (technical tie). However, Zapatero's PSOE won both in terms of number of votes and number of congressional seats. There is some controversy about the switch in voting. One interpretation suggested that the Madrid Bombings on March 11, 2004 -- three days before the elections -- changed the result of the elections, thus being the factor in the unexpected victory of the PSOE after the two nights of incidents around the PP headquarters and some of their provincial branches. Conversely, growing empirical evidence suggests [2] that the explanation is more complex: after the Madrid bombings, voters related the terrorist attacks with the government policy in Iraq; but they also weighted up the controversial management of the Madrid crisis by the incumbent; and, finally, they also introduced an evaluation of other unrelated policies in their voting decision. So, in that view, the Madrid bombings reinforced the decline of Popular Party's votes and the support for the opposition parties observed in pre-electoral polls, but in a complex way.
In spite of that evidence, the political debate about the effects of the Madrid bombings on the elections has been radicalized. For some -those close to the PSOE- these were due to the ill management of the crisis by the People's Party government. Some others -within PP supporters- suggest that the elections were "stolen" in a not clean way by means of the turmoil around the PP premises which followed the terrorist bombing (thus hurting its electoral image), this was, according to this point of view, backed if not fueled itself by the PSOE.
These incidents did interfer with the last day of campaign when, according to the Spanish electoral system regulations, any kind of political propaganda is prohibitted.
Zapatero won the election, obtaining 164 seats. The People's Party obtained 148. Despite the fact that Zapatero had won the election, he lacked a clear majority which he needed to ensure his appointment as Prime Minister (176 are needed). Zapatero began negotiating with possible coalition partners, eventually gaining the support of the United Left and the Republican Left of Catalonia. This is not a permanent coalition, resulting in the Socialists negotiate with the other parties before every major vote.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Same-sex marriage
The legalization of same-sex marriage (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.
[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.[3]
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[4].
[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 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 now defunct European Constitution of the European Union proposed by Germany and France. After signing up the treaty in Rome with the other leaders, Spain was the first country to hold a referendum to ratify the now abandoned constitution which was approved on February 20, 2005.
During the summer of 2006, Spain registered the worst of several illegal immigration waves to date. The opposition PP blames Zapatero's cabinet for the much increased illegal immigration, for having impulsed a regularization process soon after it came to office which granted a work permit for a massive amount of immigrants in Spain which were in an irregular situation until that moment (PP claims this affected 700,000 irregular immigrants).
In this regard, during the meeting of the European Union Justice and Home Affairs Ministers held in Tampere on September 22, 2006, some of the European ministers reprimanded the Spanish authorities for the aforementioned massive regularization of illegal immigrants which was regarded as too loose and opposed to the policies of other State members (on September 2 and 3rd alone, during the height of the last illegal immigration wave, 2,283 people arrived illegaly in the Canary Islands having shipped from Senegal aboard of 27 traditional Senegalese boats [2]). It must be noted that, once they reach Spanish territory, the illegal immigrants can travel freely -for the internal frontiers are basically open- within the European Union; thus, it is not strange that some of them have as their final destination some other European country. This started a short lived polemics between France's Nicolas Sarkozy and the Spanish premier Rodríguez Zapatero.
[edit] Iraq and relations with the U.S.
During the electoral campaign, Zapatero promised to recall the troops in Iraq. The withdrawal aroused a great deal of both international criticism and support, with the former fearing that it could be perceived as a victory for terrorists and the latter that it was a blow to US 'imperialist' plans. Some months later, Zapatero's government agreed to increase the number of Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan and to send troops to Haiti in a show of willingness to allot resources to international missions.
On June 8, 2004, with the withdrawal already finished, Zapatero's government voted in favor of the UN Security Council Resolution 1546 which included provisions that asked member states and NGOs to contribute military and economic assistance to Iraq. However, in a later visit to Tunisia, Zapatero asked all countries with troops in Iraq to withdraw their soldiers. This drew an angry response from the President Bush, and the American ambassador to Spain refused to go to the annual National Holiday military parade to protest Zapatero's comments.
Relations between President Bush and Zapatero remained strained in late 2004 when Bush won re-election and Zapatero's congratulatory call was not passed directly to Bush — unlike many other important world leaders' calls (such as Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac). Zapatero's message was later passed on by King Juan Carlos who visited Bush's Texas ranch a week after the US elections.
[edit] Latin America
Another change in policy with regard to his predecessor is Zapatero's decision to approach leftist leaders in Latin America such as Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. Zapatero has also played an important role in the improvement of relations between Fidel Castro's Cuban government and the European Union. At the end of March 2005, Zapatero travelled to Venezuela for a deal that allowed for the sale of Spanish military ships and aircraft to Venezuela. The decision was criticized by the US government. Zapatero has stated that the equipment has no offensive capabilities. In January 2006 the US Department of Defense was able to block the sale of various transport planes by arguing that they contained US military technology [citation needed]. 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.
[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
[edit] Official
- Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
- Web site of La Moncloa, official residence of the Spanish Prime Minister
[edit] Press
- The second transition, a survey of Spain by The Economist, Jun 24th 2004
- Interview published by Time Magazine, 19 Sep 2004
- Accidental Prime Minister
- Extended biography in Spanish, by CIDOB Foundation
| 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 Modern Spain | |
|---|---|
 |
Adolfo Suárez | Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo | Felipe González | José María Aznar | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero |
