José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the 2004 general election
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Main articles: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Spanish legislative election, 2004
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the 2004 General Election concern the election victory of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in March 2004. Zapatero became Prime Minister of Spain after winning his first General Election in March 14, 2004.
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[edit] Election campaign
The campaign for the General Election started a fortnight before March 14, 2004. The opinion polls were favorable to the People's Party, which could even repeat its absolute majority according to some of them.
Previously, on January 8, 2004, Zapatero had created a Committee of Notables composed of ten highly qualified experts with a considerable political weight. Its mission was to help him to become prime minister. Among its members: José Bono (his ex-rival for the Secretaryship of the party and current Minister of Defense), Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra (president of the regional government of Extremadura and one of the most important socialist leaders), Miguel Ángel Moratinos (his current minister of Foreign affairs [April 2005]), Gregorio Peces-Barba (later appointed by him High Commissioner for the Victims of Terrorism, although he has already made public his resignation), Carmen Calvo (later appointed Minister of Culture), etc. [OCAM p. 313]
Ten days later, on January 18, 2004, Zapatero announced that he would only become prime minister if the Spanish Socialist Workers Party was the most voted, renouncing in advance to possible parliamentary alliances if that condition did not happen after the election. The decision was criticized by the minority parties (especially United Left, a communist party) as they considered it an attempt to attract their voters, who would prefer to ensure a defeat of the People's Party even at expense of voting for a party other than their favorite. [OCAM p. 317]
Once the campaign started, Zapatero's slogan was "we deserve a better Spain". It was complemented with the sentence "Zapatero Presidente", the acronym of which (ZP), has become a popular nickname of the current Spanish Prime Minister.
Some of Zapatero's electoral promises were: 180,000 new houses every year to buy or to rent, preservation of a balanced budget with no deficit but with a more flexible approach than that of the People's Party, bilingual education (English and Spanish, together with the official regional official language in the areas where it existed), a computer per every two students, a maximum duration for legal processes of two years or financial compensation, more investment on R&D, to make the state-owned television company more independent from the government by making his director eligible by the parliament, etc. [OCAM p. 312]
During the campaign, Zapatero criticized the People's Party harshly for its management of the Prestige crisis, its attitude towards the invasion of Iraq or the high cost of housing. Mariano Rajoy, the new leader of the People's Party after Aznar's voluntary retirement, on his part, exploited the economical successes of his party since 1996 and attacked Zapatero's foreseeable future alliances with parties like United Left or Republican Left of Catalonia (a pro-Independence Catalan party very unpopular outside Catalonia).
One of the most important friction points was the absence of televised debates between the candidates. Zapatero was the first to propose a debate to Mariano Rajoy, the new leader of the People's Party after Aznar's voluntary retirement. Rajoy accepted on the condition that Zapatero could not be alone but accompanied at least by two of his potential allies after the election: Gaspar Llamazares (the leader of United Left a Spanish Communist Party) and Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira (leader of Republican Left of Catalonia). Rajoy justified his decision on the grounds that, in his opinion, he was not running against the Socialist Party but against a "coalition" of forces opposed to the People's Party policies. Zapatero never formally answered this proposal and continued criticizing throughout the campaign what he always defined as Mr. Rajoy's reluctance to defend face-to-face his political program. (Zapatero has promised to change electoral law to make televised debates compulsory.)
The campaign was ended abruptly two days before it was expected. (In Spain, the day before the election, called Reflection Day, any political propaganda is forbidden.)
[edit] The terrorist bombings of Madrid
On Thursday March 11, 2004, the most terrible terrorist attacks ever in Spanish history took place. Several commuter trains were bombed causing 191 deaths and a terrible outrage all over Spain. The attacks took place three days before the General Election and all electoral activities were suspended. The common sorrow instead of promoting unity among Spaniards increased the already bitter tone of the campaign [1].
Everybody, including the People's Party government and Zapatero (who accused ETA in a radio statement broadcast at 8:50 a.m.), initially claimed the attacks to be the work of the Basque terrorist organization ETA. Later, after an audiotape in Arab was found in a van near a railway station where the terrorists boarded one of the trains, Aznar declared that all of the possibilities were being investigated [2]. The government was accused of manipulating the existing information about the real authorship of the attacks to avoid the consequences of public anger at a bombing "caused" by its foreign policy.
Zapatero himself has repeatedly accused the Popular Party of lying about who were those responsible for the attacks. On the other hand, 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 (although all the specialists that examined the bodies said they found no evidence pointing to that) [3]. When he was asked in December 2004 about the issue by the Parliamentary Investigative Committee created to find the truth about the attacks he declared that he did not "remember" what he had said.
[edit] Election day
After the demonstrations that took place in front of the People's Party premises all over Spain on March 13 2004 (the reflection day when, according to the law, demonstrations are forbidden), Zapatero won the election on March 14, 2004. The PSOE won 164 seats in the Cortes, and the People's Party obtained 148. It seems likely that the election result was influenced to a greater or lesser extent by the Spanish public's response to the attacks and the informative coverage by the different media and political parties.
The crowd gathered to celebrate the victory in front of the Socialist Headquarters shouted to Zapatero: "Don't fail us!" (probably remembering the disappointment caused by the former Socialist government in its last years).
[edit] Influence of the attacks on the election outcome
An important point of controversy is if the purpose of the Madrid attacks was to force a Socialist victory, if that was the case, if they succeeded or the final result was unaltered. This has been called by the ex-Prime Minister José María Aznar, among others, the "March 4 theory" (that is, if the election had been scheduled for March 7, the attacks would have taken place on March 4). No definitive data exists in favor of that possibility but some facts have been used to support it. Thus, the first question Jamal Zougam (one of the first arrested suspects) made when he arrived at the Courthouse on Monday March 15, 2004 was: 'Who won the election?' [4].
Today it is widely accepted that the attacks had an impact on the election. 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 Socialist party either because they disliked 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 Socialist Party was going to win but with fewer votes.
All of these controversies put a blemish on Zapatero's victory, as the shadow of what had happened the three previous days did not allow the Socialist Party to fully enjoy its triumph. The electoral result was considered by some foreign media, especially in the US, an example of weakness that would encourage further terrorist attacks as Zapatero had opposed Bush's policy in the Middle East and had promised to withdraw the Spanish troops from Iraq. Left-wingers, among others, dismissed this point of view as absurd as the Spanish people have lived in defiance of ETA for decades and Zapatero himself has firmly condemned terrorism.
On June 13, 2004 (three months after the General Election) the Election for the European Parliament took place. The Socialist Party won again with 25 seats against 24 for the People's Party (out of 54). Although José Borrell was the official candidate, Zapatero played an important role in that campaign (as it is usual in Spain).
[edit] Notes
- ↑ According to a poll published a year after the attacks by the Madrid newspaper El Mundo, 70% of the Spaniards believed that the attacks contributed decisively to the Socialist victory.[citation needed]
[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.
