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José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (born August 4, 1960) is the fifth President of the Government of Spain since the restoration of democracy in 1978, following his party's victory in the March 14 Spanish general election. He was sworn in by King Juan Carlos I on April 17, 2004. He has been Secretary General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since 2000.

Early years

Zapatero was born in Valladolid but he grew up in León, where his affluent family, with a long tradition of left-wing politics, comes from. His father was a prominent, lawyer and his grandfather, Juan Rodriguez Lozano , was a Freemason and a Republican captain executed by the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. He attended a private school managed by the Catholic Church and the University of León. On February 23, 1979, Zapatero joined the PSOE after being inspired by their leader Felipe González at a political rally in Gijón. In 1982, Zapatero became head of the socialist youth organisation in León.

After graduating in 1983, Zapatero worked as a Law professor in the University of León until 1986. According to he was appointed directly without a previous selection process open to other candidates, what aroused suspicions of political favoritism.

In 1986, he was elected to represent the province of León in the Cortes (Parliament), becoming its youngest Member. In 1988 he was elected to head the regional chapter of the socialist party in León, and in 1997 he was appointed to the party's governing body.

Opposition leader

His period as an opposition leader started in 2000. The PSOE had lost its second successive election to José María Aznar's People's Party (PP) who obtained a majority. The leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), Joaquín Almunia immediately resigned.

On July 23, 2000 Zapatero was elected as leader and Secretary General of the PSOE. . He represented of the New Way (Nueva Vía) faction, defined as modernising, whose ideology is inspired by Tony Blair's Third Way. Zapatero had 3 opponents, beating José Bono by 414 votes to 405.

He called his strategy as Tranquil Opposition (Oposición Tranquila), based on a soft, constructive, open to dialogue attitude aimed not at achieving the best for the people. Zapatero's years as an opposition leader (and later as Prime Minister) has been a time of continuous radicalisation of the Spanish political life, a phenomenon also observed by some international media . Zapatero took part several times in public demonstrations where small groups committed acts of vandalism in a limited fashion.

His criticised the government was based on its inability to control the rise in the price of fossil fuel in 2000. He asked for a reduction in the taxes on fuel. At the end of that year, there was an outbreak of Mad Cow disease. Zapatero repeatedly criticised the Government's management of the crisis arguing that it was out of control . Also the British nuclear submarine H.M.S. 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 criticised it for his inability to force the British government to take the submarine to another harbour. After almost one year, the Tireless was repaired and left Gibraltar. . Zapatero was the main proponent of the Pact of the liberties agains terrorism, which was signed on December 8, 2000 .

In 2001, the Government reformed the University system through a law that changed its organisation. Zapatero opposed these reforms. In 2002 the Government reformed the system of unemployment benefits. This led to a redefinition of who were eligible for unemployment subsidies, arousing left-wing and trade union opposition. This was his first important clash with Aznar. A General Strike was announced for June 20, 2002. According to official statistics the support was lower than 15%, but an agreement was eventually signed satisfied both parties.

In November 2002 the oil tanker Prestige suffered an accident in international waters near Galicia that caused a large oil slick. Zapatero blamed the PP Government's for it and criticised the PP management during and after the accident .

The scheme to transfer water from the River Ebro to other irrigated areas in the south east of Spain received support from the affected farmers and the autonomous governments of regions Extremadura, Andalusia or Castilla-La Mancha. The scheme was opposed by Zapatero, environmentalist groups and the autonomous government of Aragón, arguing that the damage to the environment and a lack of sufficient water, and he cancelled the scheme soon after becoming President. On May 26, 2003 a plane carrying Spanish soldiers coming home from Afghanistan crashed in Turkey. Zapatero criticised the PP's decision to preserve the distribution of power of the European Constitution agreed by the Nice treaty (December 2000). The main friction between Aznar and Zapatero was Iraq, Zapatero considering any action against Saddam Hussein's regime and the concept of preemptive war to be illegal. His first clash with the United States came on October 12, 2003 when he broke protocol by not standing before the American flag at a military parade. He said that his action was a protest against the Iraq war and not an insult to the American people.

The 2003 and 2004 Elections

The Socialist Party received a larger popular vote (what prompted Zapatero to claim his party had been the winner) but the PP obtained gained more councils and autonomous regions. There were few changes in the results frpm 1999. The PP did well in the areas affected by the Prestige disaster. The PP were, though, defeated in the Autonomous Community of Madrid. Two socialists MPs angry at the distribution of power in the future regional government between the Izquierda Unida (United Left) and the Socialist Party started a crisis that led to the repetition of the Election in Madrid in October 2003 with the subsequent victory of the PP.

The general election started on March 1, 2004. The opinion polls were favourable to the PP. There were no televised debates between him and the new PP leader Mariano Rajoy after Rajoy demanded a debate with all the potential candidates.

On Thursday March 11, 2004 the terrorist attacks took place. Several commuters' trains were bombed causing 191 deaths, 3 days before the election, with all electoral activities suspended.

Everybody, including the government and Zapatero initially claimed the attacks to be the work of the Basque terrorist organization ETA. Later, after an audiotape in Arabic was found in a van near a railway station. Aznar declared that all of the possibilities were being investigated. 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 accused the PP of lying about who were those responsible for the attacks. 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. Zapatero won the election on March 14, 2004.

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.

President

Zapatero won 164 of the 350 seats lacking a majority needed to ensure his appointment as Prime Minister. After negotiations Zapatero obtained the support of United Left and Republican Left of Catalonia, allowing him to be elected in the first vote cast by the lower house, the Congress of Deputies. Zapatero had announced his intention to seek support for the investiture vote but without a formal coalition.

Domestic policy

The first law his government passed was against gender violence. At first, Zapatero wanted it to protect only women but according to the General Council of the Judiciary the initial draft was unconstitutional for its sex discrimination. Zapatero has declared that his government will not be soft on terrorism and will not allow regional nationalists to affect Spanish unity, and especially Juan José Ibarretxe whose Ibarretxe Plan is a reform of the statutes now regulating the functioning of the Basque Autonomous Community. The PP pressured Zapatero to prevent the vote from taking place, but Zapatero, while vowing to oppose the plan, insisted that it be debated and subject to a vote. The Spanish National Parlament rejected the plan. The plan then became a major campaign issue in the April 17 elections to the Basque Regional Parliament. Zapatero has stated that he will support any reform to the Statute of Autonomy which is supported by 2/3 of the Basque Regional Parliament.

Another of Zapatero's electoral promises was making housing more accessible. Housing prices have increased largely in the past two or three years in Spain. For that purpose he created the new Ministry of Housing. In October 2004 Zapatero's government undertook the task of morally and legally rehabilitating the victims of the Spanish Civil War, instituting a Memory Commission chaired by Vice-president María Teresa Fernández de la Vega. Some accused him of deliberately limiting the commission's mandate to focussing on left-wing victims of right-wing oppression by excluding the incidents in Republican territory, though he argues the Franco regime's glorified right-wing victims and forgetting left-wing victims. In December 2004, Zapatero faced an Investigative Committee interrogation over the March 11 bombings.

Zapatero has announced his intention to undertake limited reforms to the Spanish Constitution including legalising same-sex marriage (with adoption rights), and legalising euthanasia.

Foreign policy

The decision was immediately taken to order home the 1300 Spanish troops in Iraq. Some months later the Government agreed to increase the number of Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan and to send troops to Haiti.

On June 8 2004, Zapatero's government voted in the UN Security Council in favour of the Resolution 1546 (), that asked all the Member States to send troops to Iraq in order to fight against terrorism and help reconstruct the country.

The relations of Spain with the United States are good, according to Zapatero. He has approached left-wing leaders such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. Zapatero has played an important role in the improvement of the relation between the Cuban regime and the European Union (EU).

In Gibraltar, Zapatero initially took a strong line with the United Kingdom, complaining at Gibraltar's celebrations for the tercentenary of its independence from Spain but at the end of 2004 he accept the participation of Gibraltar in the discussions both countries hold regularly about the colony. Zapatero accepted the distribution of power in the European Constitution proposals even though the proposed distribution meant a loss of influence for Spain. He called a referendum on February 20, 2005. With a turnout of 41%, 75% voted in favour.

Personal

Zapatero married the daughter of a military officer on January 27, 1990. called Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz who studied law and is an opera singer and a music teacher. He is father of two girls, Laura (1993) and Alba (1995). He has been the first Spanish prime minister who has not shown his family to the public media, as there exist no available recent images of his two minor daughters. His wife has never said anything in public (March 2005).

He is only fluent in Spanish and has some rough basic knowledge of English.

His favorite sports are football and basketball. Rodríguez Zapatero is a supporter of the Barcelona football team.

See also

• History of Spain
• Politics of Spain

External links

Official

• Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
• Web site of La Moncloa, official residence of the Spanish Prime Minister

Press

• Alternet, 11 April 2005, "Zapatero Steps Up" (first year in office)
• Copy of the editorial of the Wall Street Journal "The Accidental Prime Minister", 25 November 2004
• Interview published by Time Magazine, 19 Sep 2004

Spanish

• Extended biography by CIDOB Foundation (in Spanish)
• Biography in Spanish of Zapatero
• Website highly critical of Rodríguez Zapatero

• 1960 births
• Spanish politicians
• Spanish politics
• Current national leaders