Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (Valladolid, August 4, 1960) is a Spanish politician who was the fifth president of the Government of Spain after the Transition, between 2004 and 2011. Member of the Socialist Party Obrero Español (PSOE), he served as its general secretary between 2000 and 2012. He was a deputy in the iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii and ix legislatures of Congress.
During his first term, which he reached after the victory of the PSOE in the 2004 general elections, the main measures taken by his government were the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, the sending of troops to Afghanistan and the promotion of Alliance of Civilizations, presented to the UN General Assembly in 2004 as an alternative to President Bush's war against terrorism. The abandonment of the "Atlantist" policy was accompanied by rapprochement with Germany and France. The political and economic stability during his first term allowed the development of a progressive program with actions such as the legalization of same-sex marriage, the law for the promotion of personal autonomy and care for people in situations of dependency and the creation of network of care services, the law for effective equality between women and men, the new Education Law (which introduced the controversial new subject called Education for Citizenship, harshly criticized by the opposition and the Catholic hierarchy), the creation of Courts of Violence against Women, the Organic Law of Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence, a new regularization of immigrants, the implementation of a series of aid to disadvantaged families, the attempted peace process with ETA, the law smoking, the Historical Memory Law, the Express Divorce Law and the reform of various Statutes of Autonomy, notably the Statute of Catalonia.
His second term, which began after the 2008 general elections, was intensely marked by the impact of the world crisis of 2008, much more serious and profound than anticipated by his government and by most international economic organizations. In March 2010, a new Abortion Law was enacted. This period of recession, aggravated by the collapse of the financial sector and the debacle of the real estate sector (the main economic and employment engine in Spain in the previous fifteen years), led to a sharp deterioration in the national economy. The agreement was reached for regional financing, and the one that eliminates advertising from RTVE. Also the Sustainable Economy Law, whose objective was to renew the Spanish productive model. At the PSOE Federal Committee held on April 2, 2011, he announced that he would not stand as a candidate for hypothetical elections in 2012, thus renouncing a possible third term. Finally, on July 29, 2011, he announced an electoral advance for November 20 of that same year. One month before the elections, on October 20, the terrorist organization ETA announced "the definitive cessation of its armed activity."
After leaving the presidency of the Government, on February 9, 2012, he took office as an ex officio member of the Council of State. In 2015 he left the Council of State to become Chairman of the Advisory Board of the German foundation Institute for Cultural Diplomacy.In 2016 he was appointed Chairman of the Socially Responsible Recruitment Forum.
Rodríguez Zapatero is popularly identified by his second surname and also by the acronym "ZP" ("Zapatero President"), which corresponded to the logo of the electoral campaign of the 2004 general elections. Because his second surname includes With these two letters, the acronym "ZP" is currently used in various fields to refer to Rodríguez Zapatero. For the 2008 general elections his slogan was "Con Z de Zapatero".
Childhood and youth. Studies and hobbies (1960-1986)
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was born in Valladolid on August 4, 1960 into a wealthy family, from León. He was the second child of the marriage, after a brother four years older, Juan. His father, Juan Rodríguez García de Lozano, is a lawyer. His mother, María de la Purificación Zapatero Valero, died on October 30, 2000 due to a serious illness. His paternal grandfather, Juan Rodríguez Lozano, an army captain during the Second Republic, was executed by the rebels on August 18. of 1936 in the neighborhood of Puente Castro de León, during the Spanish civil war, for refusing to participate in the uprising in León. The will of Captain Rodríguez Lozano, written before his execution in the San Marcos concentration camp, is cited by Zapatero as one of the reasons that led him to enter politics. His maternal grandparents were Dr. Faustino Zapatero Coronel, pediatrician in Valladolid, and Natividad Valero Asensio, who died on July 28, 2006 at the age of 103. Rodríguez Zapatero grew up in León. He studied primary school at the Discípulas de Jesús School, in León (1966–1970); Baccalaureate and COU in the private center Colegio Leonés (1970-1977). As a child he spent the summer in Luanco or in Gijón (Asturias).
On August 15, 1976, before the legalization of political parties, he attended a meeting of Felipe González in Gijón, which awakened his political vocation. He joined the Socialist Youth and the Socialist Workers Party Español (PSOE) in 1979, shortly after coming of age, and was secretary of the youth organization in León.
In sports, Zapatero is a big soccer fan; His favorite soccer team is Fútbol Club Barcelona, although he stood out more as a basketball player. Another hobby of his was fishing; he frequented the Porma and Órbigo rivers. He is also a great fan of reading Spanish-American literature, particularly Jorge Luis Borges.
According to Zapatero's own statements: “My family, named Zapatero, is of Jewish descent,” probably from a family of Marranos, that is, the Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity.
He studied Law at the University of León. In the classrooms of the Faculty of Law, he met Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz —with whom he would later marry on January 27, 1990 and have two daughters, Laura and Alba.
Zapatero graduated in 1982, with a thesis on the Statute of Autonomy of Castilla y León. After graduating, Zapatero was hired as a collaborating professor of Constitutional Law at the same University (1983-1986).. The successive extensions that he requested for academic reasons allowed him to free himself from compulsory military service.
Early political career (1986-2000)
In 1986 he obtained a seat in Congress (legislature 1986-1989) for León, becoming the youngest deputy in the chamber and remaining until 2011 as a deputy. The successive extensions of the obligatory military service for reasons of studies ended up excusing him from it when he was elected. In the Congress of Deputies he successively formed part of the Justice and Interior, Constitutional, Ombudsman and Public Administration commissions, in which he was the spokesperson for his group.
The surprising election of Zapatero for the General Secretariat of the Leonese Socialist Federation (FSL) on June 19, 1988, at the V Provincial PSOE Congress held in Astorga, was linked by the media to a pact between the strong men and factions of Leonese socialism, characterized by internal confrontations, the union tradition and a strong attachment to mining workers. His recognized ability to iron out ideological and personal differences between his colleagues and calm tense environments was going to be the best instrument in the political promotion of who was still an absolutely anonymous deputy in Madrid.
Zapatero was re-elected Secretary General with 68% of the votes in the VII León Regional Committee held in July 1994. In the 1996 general elections, Zapatero kept his seat in the Congress of Deputies, always for León. The following year Zapatero was once again re-elected Secretary General of the PSOE de León, and also became a member of the Federal Executive, the party's highest body.
Zapatero did not subscribe, at least expressly, to any internal current; his apparent neutrality continued after the XXXIV Congress, from which he emerged as one of the 33 members of the new Federal Executive Commission (CEF), as head of one of the committees. On November 16, 1997, the VIII Congress of the Leonese PSOE confirmed him as regional secretary general.
On March 12, 2000, the PSOE lost its second consecutive general election against the PP of José María Aznar. Zapatero kept his deputy act, but the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party won only 125 seats, 16 less than in the 1996 general elections.
The New Way platform
Rodríguez Zapatero decided that he would choose to lead the PSOE during the XXXV Federal Congress in June 2000, after the resignation of Joaquín Almunia. He promoted a new current within the party, more centrist and at the same time more liberal, called the New Way . The New Way project, more programmatic than ideological, evoked the Third Way of British Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair and also the New Center (Neue Mitte) of the German Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who pivoted on notions such as pragmatism and efficiency when reviewing the relations between the State and citizens, and naturally assuming the imperatives of the free market economics in contemporary societies. For the same reason, Zapatero's proposal seemed to move away from the more classic socialism that characterized, for example, the French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who distanced himself from the theses of his colleagues in London and Berlin.
On June 25, 2000, Zapatero announced his intention to present his candidacy for general secretary at a meeting in León. In his speech, he made a statement of principles:
- Build a society that accepts all immigrants.
- Prioritizing education and creating stable employment.
- Give parents more time to spend with their children and care for the elderly.
- Promote culture.
- Convert to Spain to a country admired for helping the most needy.
- Help them with quality initiatives.
- Promote democracy, accentuate politics and promote values above communal interests.
He competed for the general secretary with José Bono, Matilde Fernández and Rosa Díez. Zapatero was the "surprise candidate", and critics pointed out his inexperience while those who supported him indicated that he was the reformist figure that the PSOE needed. On July 22, Zapatero won by a narrow margin (out of 995 votes, he obtained 414 supports; José Bono obtained 405). This unexpected victory came about thanks to the support of the PSC.
Leader of the opposition (2000-2004)
The election of Zapatero meant a true generational change in the PSOE. The Leonese leader had managed to unify the party, close the serious crisis that had dragged on for four years due to faction fights and the leadership vacuum, and present a hopeful project to the militancy.
As leader of the opposition, Zapatero declared that he would be constructive and would not try to harm the government; he even coined the expression "quiet opposition." His opposition strategy was based on proposing various pacts to the ruling party on fundamental State issues, terrorism in particular. Thus, the Anti-Terrorist Pact was one of those proposals formulated by the PSOE under the leadership of Zapatero. This profile of a moderate opponent was not well understood by some sectors of the party, bent on confrontation. However, opinion polls and polls revealed a gradual recovery in the expectations of the Socialists.
Confrontation with the Government
Zapatero progressively changed his speech as the legislature progressed. The Government of José María Aznar had an absolute majority in the VII Legislature, and during it, the adoption of controversial regulations in the social and labor fields (reforms of the Immigration Law and unemployment protection, organic laws of Quality of Education, LOCE, and Universities, LOU), led to a hardening of the confrontation between the opposition and the government.
Zapatero's first serious political confrontation with the government came over his request for a tax cut to offset the rise in the price of crude oil. At the end of the same year, mad cow disease returned to the present day after the 1996 outbreak. Zapatero criticized the government's policy on the crisis on several occasions, arguing that it was out of control. Zapatero called for the creation of an inter-ministerial commission along with 10 other measures to deal with the crisis.
In 2000 the British nuclear submarine Tireless docked in Gibraltar to repair its reactor. Zapatero criticized that the British government was not pressured to remove the submarine, which left the rock a year later. On December 19, 2001, he traveled to Morocco after the Alaouite government expelled the Spanish ambassador in Rabat, in a criticized gesture. by the Popular Party government. Zapatero would argue that the trip was intended to reduce tension between the two countries.
Zapatero disagreed with the PP government's position of active support for the invasion of Iraq, promoted by the United States and the United Kingdom. In this matter, Zapatero's opposition was much tougher.
Iraq and foreign policy
Opinion polls in 2003 showed that a majority of Spanish voters were against the invasion. Like several European rulers, Zapatero considered that an armed attack not authorized by the United Nations would be illegal and opposed the concept of preventive war.
Zapatero's first friction with the United States also had to do with his position on the war. On October 12, 2003, during the Hispanic Day parade, Zapatero did not rise to the passing of the American flag. He said that his action was a protest against the Iraq war and not an insult to the American people, however, this gesture was harshly and long criticized by the Popular Party and the conservative press, considering it as what would be the beginning of a foreign policy and a damaging image of Spain when Zapatero came to power. Ana Botella, the wife of then-president José María Aznar and former mayor of Madrid, went so far as to affirm that because of that gesture by Zapatero, the Spanish capital was not chosen to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Izquierda Unida, on the other hand, supported Zapatero, sharing the idea of not "kneeling" before the foreign policy of the United States.
In his electoral program, Zapatero assured that he would withdraw the Spanish troops deployed to Iraq if a UN resolution supporting him was not obtained before June 2004.
Terrorism
During this period, the most prominent issue was the signing of the "Agreement for Liberties and against Terrorism," at the proposal of Rodríguez Zapatero. Also known as the Anti-Terrorist Pact, it was an agreement signed by the PP and the PSOE on December 8, 2000.
The main objective of the agreement was to promote unity between both parties in the fight against terrorism. Some clauses were included to ensure that anti-terrorism policies were not used as an electoral weapon.
2004 General Election
In October 2002, Rodríguez Zapatero was appointed his party's candidate for the presidency of the government in the general elections of March 14, 2004. During the electoral campaign for the general elections, the polls were favorable to the popular candidate Mariano Rajoy, although there were serious doubts as to whether he could revalidate the absolute majority won in 2000. On January 26, 2004, the newspaper ABC revealed that the minister in cap, Josep Lluís Carod -Rovira had met between December 2003 and January of that same year, in Perpignan (France) with the terrorist group ETA, and with whom it is believed that he reached an agreement, since the following month ETA declared a truce only in Catalonia. Carod-Rovira was part of the tripartite government formed in Catalonia and chaired by the socialist Pasqual Maragall, Zapatero did not disavow Maragall, nor did he demand that ERC (Carod's party) leave the government.
Election campaign
In the 2004 electoral campaign, Zapatero criticized the PP's management of the Prestige disaster, support for the Iraq war and the strong growth in housing prices. He promised to build 180,000 new homes each year and keep the budget balanced, albeit more loosely. In schools he promised bilingual education and a computer for every two students. In addition, he assured that he would increase the budget items for R + D + I, specifically by 25% per year until 2008, to match technological investment with that of the community average. Mariano Rajoy, the new leader of the PP after Aznar's withdrawal, started with an advantage thanks to the good macroeconomic data that had been recorded since 1996. Rajoy warned that if Zapatero came to Moncloa, he would probably have to govern with partners like IU or ERC, which he defined as radical and unstable.
The absence of debates between the two candidates was another point of contention. Zapatero proposed debating Rajoy before the 2004 general elections, but he refused.
March 11 attacks
On Thursday, March 11, 2004, the most serious terrorist attack in the recent history of Spain took place. The explosions in several commuter trains in Madrid caused 192 fatalities and thousands of injuries. The shock was total in the Western world. The attacks took place three days before the general elections and all electoral campaign events were cancelled. However, instead of uniting all the political leaders, the attacks provoked bitter divisions among them. There is still disagreement today as to whether it was the terrorist attacks or the events after them that caused the electoral upturn, since the government de Aznar initially attributed the authorship to ETA despite the evidence that pointed to Islamist terrorists. The events of those days were interpreted by a large part of public opinion as a lack of transparency, due to which hundreds of citizens demonstrated in the main Spanish cities accusing the Government of hiding information.
Election results
The general elections were held on March 14, 2004 and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party was victorious, although without reaching an absolute majority. This situation forced him to seek pacts with other minority political formations to, initially, get Zapatero to become president of the government and then maintain the governability of the country.
The PSOE was victorious, reaching 164 seats and 43.27% of the votes cast, compared to the 146 seats and 37.81% of the votes obtained by the PP. In the Senate, the PP lost 25 senators, achieving a relative majority despite the decline. For its part, the PSOE increased its representation by 28 senators.
On April 16, 2004, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero obtained the confidence of the Congress of Deputies to be appointed President of the Government in accordance with the procedure established in article 99 of the Constitution. In the investiture vote, Zapatero received 183 votes in favor (PSOE, IU, ERC, CC, BNG and CHA), 148 against (PP), and 19 abstentions (CiU, PNV, EA and NaBai).
President of the Government (2004-2011)
VIII Legislature (2004-2008)
2004
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On April 17, 2004, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero promised the position of President of the Government before Juan Carlos I. The following day, the members of the Council of Ministers were sworn in or promised their position. There were eight ministers and eight ministers. It was the first joint government in the history of Spain. María Teresa Fernández de la Vega became the first woman to access the position of vice president of the Government. One day after taking office, Zapatero announced the withdrawal "at the least possible time" of the Spanish military troops deployed in Iraq.
In addition to the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, another of the PSOE's electoral promises during the campaign, and which it later carried out, was the increase in the minimum interprofessional wage. In 2004 the minimum wage in Spain was €460.5 per month, one of the lowest in the entire European Union. During the viii legislature it became €600 per month.
On June 13, elections to the European Parliament were held. In them the PSOE was the list with the most votes, obtaining 43.3% votes and 25 seats. More than a month later, on July 20, the head of the PSOE list in the elections, José Borrell was elected president of Parliament European.
On June 18, the government repealed the transfer of the Ebro, the so-called National Hydrological Plan (PHN).
On July 4, Rodríguez Zapatero was reelected as general secretary of the PSOE with 95% of the votes in the XXXVI Federal Congress of the party.
In the following months, the Council of Ministers decided to renew and expand the Spanish military contingent in Afghanistan and set up a humanitarian mission in Haiti. Also noteworthy is the meeting in Moncloa on July 26 between the President of the Government and the Basque Lehendakari, Juan José Ibarretxe.
In September 2004, Rodríguez Zapatero appeared at the 59th United Nations General Assembly in which he proposed an alliance between the Western world and the Arab world. In the same month, the Council of Ministers approved the draft Divorce Reform Law, which abolished separation as an obligatory prior step and eliminates the need to allege causes to obtain the dissolution of the marriage.
On the 13th of the same month, a Spanish-Franco-German summit was held at the Moncloa palace, with the presence of the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, where they promised to promote a common foreign and security policy.
On October 3, he was arrested by the French police; Mikel Antza, leader of ETA in Salies-de-Béarn.
In foreign affairs, the European Constitution also had an important weight during the viii legislature. On October 29, the 25 Heads of State and Government of the European Union signed the Treaty of Rome to establish a Constitution for Europe. For its ratification, various referendums would later be called by European countries.
After the re-election of George W. Bush in the November 2 elections, Zapatero's congratulatory call was not answered by the US president. Finally it was the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, who conveyed this fact. Their relationship was so cold and distant that during that legislature they only met again at a dinner (in September 2007) to have an eight-second conversation.
On December 13, Zapatero appeared before the Investigation Commission of the 11-M attacks.
Before the end of 2004, on December 22, the Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence were approved. On the 31st of the same month, Spain's mandate as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ended.
The Spanish economy grew by 2.6% that year.
2005
During 2005, different referendums were held in the member states of the European Union on the acceptance or not of the European Constitution. On January 11, the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies unanimously authorized the holding of a consultative referendum on the ratification of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. The consultative referendum campaign on the ratification of the Treaty began on February 2, and the referendum was held on February 20. With a participation of 41.77 percent of the census, the votes in favor added up to 76.30% of the total voters. The votes against were 16.92% and the blank and null votes were 6.77%. Spain said "yes" to the European Constitution, but successive referendums in the other member states did not enjoy broad support, and in France and the Netherlands the "no" he was victorious.
On February 1, the Congress of Deputies rejected by 313 votes against (PSOE, PP, CC, IU and CHA) and 2 abstentions (Iniciativa per Catalunya) the Ibarretxe Plan, a project to reform the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country.
On the 7th of that month, Zapatero began a process to regularize illegal immigration. When Zapatero came to power, there were more than 800,000 foreigners in an irregular situation in Spain. In 2004, Spain was the European Union country that received the largest number of immigrants. Immigration accounted for nearly 90% of the increase in the population of Spain. In November, a CIS survey stated that 60% of Spaniards considered that there were "too many" immigrants and that also for 40% was the main problem of the country.
On April 17, elections were held in the Basque Country. In them, Ibarretxe's PNV was the list with the most votes, but it lost four seats compared to the previous electoral date. Despite this, Juan José Ibarretxe continued to be Lendakari with a simple majority, thanks to the fact that he voted in favor of investing him in the Communist Party of the Basque Country (PCTV).
On June 30, the Congress of Deputies approved same-sex marriage with 183 votes. After that vote, Spain became the third country in the world that allowed same-sex marriage.
On May 17, all the parties represented in Congress (except the PP) supported Zapatero's executive to talk with ETA if the terrorist organization laid down its weapons. The PP considered that Zapatero had broken the Anti-Terrorist Pact and both the party and its related media began a campaign of hostility towards the Government, turning anti-terrorism policy into the main axis of their opposition. This ended up causing the isolation of the PP in parliament, a great tension and deterioration of cordiality, and a polarization of Spanish politics, which continued to lead the Spanish political debate until 2008. On February 18, 2008, the newspaper El Mundo published that ETA requested in three letters to the Government that its intention was to undertake a "political negotiation" to resolve the "conflict between Spain and the Basque Country".
In the Galician regional elections, held on June 19, the PP was the party with the most votes, but by not reaching an absolute majority by one seat, the socialist Emilio Pérez Touriño became the new president of the Junta de Galicia after reaching an investiture agreement with the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). This meant the end of the presidency of Manuel Fraga, after fifteen years in office.
In May, the Council of Ministers agreed to refer the assisted reproduction bill to Parliament. On September 5, Gas Natural launched a takeover bid for Endesa shares that produced a strong impact in the political and business world. Endesa announced its defense intention to stop the operation.
In July, the so-called "points license" was approved and speed controls on the road were intensified. The measure bore fruit from its entry into force (on July 1 of the following year) and deaths from traffic accidents in Spain clearly decreased from that moment on. If in 2003 3,933 people died in traffic accidents in Spain, in 2011 road fatalities dropped to 1,479.
On August 16, a helicopter crash occurred near the city of Herat in Afghanistan, killing 17 Spanish soldiers.
Similarly, during the second half of 2005, proposals to reform the Statute of Autonomy were approved, both for Catalonia and for the Valencian Community, the latter being jointly approved by the PSOE and the PP. However, the reform of the statute of Catalonia generated more debate, and the Popular Party presented appeals of unconstitutionality during the legislature.
The Council of Ministers of October 7, 2005 created the Emergency Military Unit (U.M.E.) as a joint military force of a permanent nature within the Armed Forces, with the aim of quickly intervening anywhere in the national territory Spanish in cases of catastrophe, serious risk, calamity or other public needs, together with other State institutions and Public Administrations. This star project of President Zapatero has been a success and is an international benchmark for the creation of units similar.
In December the European Commission demanded that Spain apply VAT to the Catholic Church. This is not the only time that religion, and more specifically the Church, were present in the political debate during the legislature. The disagreements between the Government and the ecclesiastical hierarchy arose from different points, among which stood out the suppression of the subject of Catholic Religion or the equalization of other religions in public education. The Spanish Episcopal Conference showed its opposition to the Government on issues such as marriages between people of the same sex and the educational reform of the subject of religion. He also launched a campaign against euthanasia, and announced that others would follow on other issues that he considered to be of "public interest".
The debate was maintained on various fronts throughout the legislature, both in the economic field, in which a new financing agreement was finally reached with the Church (it began to be applied from 2007) and in the education, especially in relation to the subject of Education for Citizenship, or in that of rights and freedoms in relation to marriage between people of the same sex.
The year 2005 ended with economic growth of 3.4% (three tenths more than the previous year).
2006
On January 2, the anti-smoking law came into effect. With her, smoking became prohibited in the workplace. Restaurants and entertainment venues of more than 100 m² were required to separate a smoking room and a non-smoking room.
The Salamanca Archive Papers began their return to Catalonia, their original place.
On the 21st of the same month, Zapatero met for more than six hours with the main leaders of Convergència i Unió: Artur Mas and Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida to reach a global agreement on the Statute. It was essentially economic: a commitment that Catalonia would receive in the following seven years 18.5% of state investments: the percentage equivalent to its participation in GDP and a total volume of almost 3,000 million euros. In addition, all communities would start to administer 50% of personal income tax (before it was 33%) and VAT (before it was 40%), and 58% of excise taxes (before it was 50%).
Among the laws that were the source of controversy during that year, the Law regulating the digital canon stood out. This law was amended on June 22, 2006. Congress approved (with no votes against and the sole abstention of ERC and PNV) the reform of the Intellectual Property Law regulating the digital canon, by which end buyers would have to pay a fee to copyright management entities for digital media ideal for recording and reproducing files, that is, CDs and DVDs, but also MP3 players, memory cards, mobile phones, printers and digital cameras. Hard drives and ADSL connections remain free of charge.
In March, the Council of Ministers approved the referral to the Cortes of the Organic Equality Law Project.
On March 30, the Congress of Deputies approved the Statute of Catalonia by 189 votes in favor and 154 against.
On April 6, the Organic Law of Education (LOE) was approved. The law followed the LOGSE, the law of the Government of Felipe González of 1990. Organic Quality of Education (LOCE) of the PP promulgated in 2002. The most significant changes were the reduction of itineraries in the Baccalaureate, the replacement of grades with letters (from insufficient to outstanding) by numerical grades from 1 to 10 in the secondary education, and the introduction of Education for Citizenship, a subject with content on democracy, Human Rights and the Spanish Constitution, among other subjects. A movement emerged against this matter, branded as socialist indoctrination by conservative sectors and the Church, demanding that parents of students be able to exercise conscientious objection and not pursue it. In 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that the content of the course was constitutional and did not constitute indoctrination, therefore there was no conscientious objection against it.
In the same month, the president announced the reshuffle of his government. The changes affected three Ministries: Defense, Interior and Education. The Defense Minister, José Bono, was replaced by José Antonio Alonso, who was the head of the Interior portfolio. Alonso's position was occupied by Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and Mercedes Cabrera Calvo-Sotelo succeeded the Minister of Education and Science, María Jesús San Segundo..
On June 18, Catalonia overwhelmingly supported the Statute in a referendum. 73.9% of the votes were positive and 20.7% against. However, participation in the polls did not reach 50% of the census. Three days later, on June 21, the president of the Generalitat, Pascual Maragall, announced that he would dissolve the Catalan Parliament at the end of August and would not be elected again. the candidate of the PSC in that appointment with the early polls. On June 27, the Executive Commission of the PSC proposed José Montilla as a candidate to preside over the Generalitat of Catalonia. On August 29, the then mayor of Barcelona, Joan Clos, replaced Montilla as head of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.
On November 1, regional elections were held in Catalonia, in which the CiU won, led by Artur Mas, but without reaching an absolute majority. Such fact, took a few days later for the leader of the PSC, José Montilla, to present a new tripartite between the PSC, ERC and ICV-EUiA, called "Entesa Nacional pel Progrés" that he did achieve an absolute majority in Parliament. For this reason, Montilla was sworn in as the new president of the Generalitat of Catalonia.
On March 22, the terrorist organization ETA declared a "permanent ceasefire". The reaction was immediate from Zapatero's executive, who opened a peace process to put an end to ETA's barbarism definitively.
Both Pope Benedict XVI and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly supported the peace process that had been undertaken. On June 29, Zapatero announced in Congress the start of a dialogue with ETA.
On September 18, the government established in the Cordoba Agreement together with the UK and Gibraltar governments, the Gibraltar Tripartite Dialogue Forum which for the first time recognized the Chief Minister as a party to a negotiating table. Among the agreements reached, he highlighted the joint use of the Gibraltar airport and the opening of a Cervantes Institute on the isthmus.
On October 25, ETA broke its commitment not to rearm; the terrorist gang stole 350 pistols in France.
On December 30, ETA attacked the Madrid-Barajas Airport. A van bomb caused the death of two people (who were sleeping in the car and did not hear the eviction order), injured twenty and caused significant damage to the airport infrastructure, as well as suspensions and delays in flights.
In the afternoon of that same day, Zapatero appeared in Moncloa to announce that he was suspending the dialogue with ETA, however, in an interview in January 2008 in the newspaper El Mundo he stated that he continued negotiating with ETA despite the attack.
In the last quarter of 2006, the Spanish economy grew at 4% of GDP. In October of that same year, the unemployment rate for the third quarter stood at 8.1%, the lowest rate since 1979.
At this time, Law 39/2006, of December 14, on the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for people in situations of dependency, was approved.
2007
Zapatero's executive managed to be ahead in the vote polls carried out by the CIS, and in the opinion polls of the different media throughout the legislature. Only in some polls was it reached a "technical tie", however, as the 2008 general elections approached, the margin between PSOE and PP narrowed.
On January 19, 2007, a poll for the SER chain placed the PSOE's advantage over the PP at six points. Two days later, a poll for the newspaper La Vanguardia increased the Socialist lead to 7.2 points. In May of that same year, the CIS barometer for the month of April was published, according to which the PSOE increased its advantage over the PP from 1.2 to 3 points.
In the polls evaluating politicians, Zapatero achieved a scratched pass mark during the legislature, he went from 6 to 5.2 in three years, while the rest of the political leaders did not reach the pass mark. In 2004 the leader of the opposition, Mariano Rajoy, was ranked 5, and after three years in the opposition it fell to 4.1.
On February 7, Juan Fernando López Aguilar was replaced by Mariano Fernández Bermejo in the Ministry of Justice.
On February 15, the oral trial began against the 29 defendants for the terrorist massacre of 11-M
Three days later, the referendum to reform the Andalusian statute was held, obtaining a favorable result, since the "yes" he achieved majority support with 87.45% of voters, but with a turnout of 36.28%.
On March 1, following the advice and subsequent resolution of the Strasbourg court to suppress the parot doctrine, the government granted the terrorist Iñaki de Juana Chaos (author of 25 murders) reduced prison. This fact caused the 10 On March 2, a demonstration was held in Madrid organized by the Popular Party against the decision made by the socialist executive and against its anti-terrorist policy, in which there was no exact number of protesters and they varied according to the sources. On August 2 of the following year, by Juana Chaos was released after serving 21 years in prison, despite having been sentenced for more than 3,000 years.
On May 27, municipal and regional elections were held. The results gave victory in the popular vote by a narrow margin to the Popular Party with 7,916,075 votes (36.02%) compared to the 7,760,948 votes (35.32%) of the PSOE. It was their first victory in national elections since 2000. Although the PSOE won in number of councilors with 24,029, compared to 23,350 for the PP. The regional elections verified that the margin between the two parties was progressively narrowed as the 2008 general elections approached.
About six months after the attack at the Barajas airport where two people died, ETA officially announced, on June 5, that it was ending the 439-day ceasefire.
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On July 7, Zapatero carried out the last remodeling of his executive in the Legislature that was coming to an end, these were the following: the Minister of Public Administration, Jordi Sevilla, was replaced by Elena Salgado. Salgado left Health where she was replaced by Bernat Soria. The then director of the Cervantes Institute, César Antonio Molina, was placed in charge of the Ministry of Culture. The Minister of Housing, María Antonia Trujillo, also left office. She filled her vacancy Carme Chacón.
In August, the Minister of the Economy, Pedro Solbes, ordered the sale of 32% of the gold reserves owned by the Bank of Spain. In that year, an ounce of gold was trading at 669 dollars, in April 2011 at 1,508. There was an increase in its price of 125%. The 4.3 million ounces of gold were sold for $2,867.7 million and four years later they were valued at $6,471.5 million.
On October 31, the judgment of the trial of the terrorist attacks of 11-M was made public, in which it was stated that Spain's support in the Iraq war was not the reason for the brutal attack, it was not known who or who were the masterminds of 11-M of the nearly 30 defendants only three were convicted as material authors, the sentence acquitted Rabei Osman Mohamed El Egipcio, who according to the prosecutor was the mastermind of the massacre and six other defendants.
Spanish Historical Memory Law
On November 9 and 10, the XXVII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government was held in Santiago, Chile. Rodríguez Zapatero participated together with the rulers of the various member countries in the summit, playing an important role in the events that occurred around the actions of the President of Venezuela. At the summit, Hugo Chávez denounced an alleged participation in the coup d'état in Venezuela in 2002 by the Spanish government, chaired at the time by José María Aznar, whom he described as a fascist, to which Zapatero replied that "You can be in the antipodes of an ideological position and I will not be the one who is close to Aznar's ideas, but he was elected by the Spanish and I demand that respect ». Faced with the interruptions of the president of Venezuela, King Juan Carlos I answered him "Why don't you shut up?", this being an event that transcended in the media and caused an important social phenomenon, in addition to generating different opinions. Former President José María Aznar thanked the king and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero by telephone for their support at the summit.
On December 1, about a year later, ETA killed again —for the first time in its history on French territory. The terrorist organization assassinated the civil guards, Raúl Centeno and Fernando Trapero in Capbreton (France). Al Qaeda
2008 General Election
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The electoral campaign began on February 22, 2008, which according to surveys carried out by the CIS between the months of January and February of that same year After having been interviewed on the television channel Cuatro by the journalist Iñaki Gabilondo and when His broadcast was closing. Gabilondo asked him "What do the polls you have look like?" and Zapatero replied (without knowing that they were being recorded) "Well, no problem, what happens is that it is convenient for us to have tension."
Three days later, on February 25, the first Rajoy-Zapatero debate takes place.
During the electoral campaign, the Popular Party based its criticism of the socialist executive on the negotiations held with the terrorist organization ETA. For its part, the PSOE focused its arguments on the growth exhibited in the Spanish economy in the previous legislature. One of his electoral slogans "For full employment".
On March 7, the terrorist group ETA murdered the former councilor of the PSE in the Gipuzkoan town of Mondragón Isaías Carrasco. Due to this deadly attack, Zapatero agreed with the PP to suspend the closing acts of the electoral campaign as a sign of mourning and rejection.
Two days later, on March 9, the tenth general elections were held since the establishment of democracy in Spain. In them, the PSOE won again with 169 seats, which for the first time in its history exceeded 11 million votes. Despite this, he remained 7 deputies of the absolute majority. The Popular Party achieved more than 40% of the votes and 154 deputies —the best result ever obtained by a party that would be in opposition. Between the two most important political forces in Spain they added 322 of the 350 deputies that made up the Congress of Deputies. It meant the highest peak of bipartisanship. The 25 seats and more than a million and a half votes from Catalonia were decisive for Zapatero's re-election. At that time Spain, Portugal and Cyprus were the only countries governed by the Socialists.
IX Legislature (2008-2011)
2008
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After the March 9 elections, before the start of the IX Legislature, Zapatero stated that his priorities will be "the fight against the economic slowdown" and "agree with the PP and the other groups on anti-terrorism policy, constitutional reform and the renewal of justice". In the same way, he will try to consolidate the social policy carried out in the previous legislature.
Zapatero did not achieve an absolute majority in the investiture, so he submitted to a new vote on April 11, in which he was sworn in as President of the Government by a simple majority. In this second round he obtained 169 votes in favor (PSOE), 158 against (Partido Popular, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and UPyD) and 23 abstentions (CiU, PNV, IU, ICV, BNG, CC, NaBai).
On April 13, after pledging his position before King Juan Carlos I, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero officially announced the people who will sit on the Council of Ministers. It is the first time in the history of Spain that the Council of Ministers is made up of a majority of women (9 ministers compared to 8 ministers).
Also, for the first time, a woman held the Ministry of Defense; Carme Chacón. A new ministry created, that of Equality, had the youngest woman in democracy as its minister, Bibiana Aído, at thirty-one years old.
The CIS barometer carried out at the end of April, and published in May, once again indicated that Rodríguez Zapatero continued to be the politician most valued by those surveyed. The leader of the PP, Mariano Rajoy, improved his average grade, which went from 3.95 obtained on the eve of the elections to 4.24, but he continued to distance himself from the Prime Minister, Zapatero, who achieved a score of 5.58, which increases by 22 hundredths what it had before March 9.
On May 20, in a joint operation between the French Gendarmerie and the Civil Guard, the terrorist Francisco Javier López Peña "Thierry" was arrested in Bordeaux (France), considered the "number one" of ETA who was looking for and capture since 1983. This ETA member was the one who ordered to break the truce of 2006 with the attack in the parking lot of the Barajas airport. 19 days before ETA committed this terrorist action and killed two people, during the negotiations between him and Jesús Eguiguren (representative of the Spanish government) in Oslo (Norway) he threatened with the following phrase: "If you break the process, this (referring to Spain) is going to be Vietnam”.
For nearly three months, between June 14 and September 14, Zaragoza held an International Exhibition. Its closure coincided with the outbreak of the global economic crisis (the next day Lehman Brothers fell), to which was added a very serious economic, financial and real estate crisis in Spain.
In 2007, construction, which had become the main engine of growth in the country, showed signs of weakness, since at the end of that year, losses in real estate increased by 203.4 million euros. The "bubble real estate” had exploded.
In January 2008, it was revealed that the economy was experiencing its worst moment in the Legislature, inflation had risen to 4.3% and unemployment registered the highest increase in five years. In that same month, the day 14, El Mundo published an interview conducted by the director of the newspaper, Pedro J. Ramírez, with Zapatero, in which he assured “that it was a fallacy. Pure catastrophism" (that there was a scenario of economic crisis ahead). In addition, the Stock Market experienced its worst month of January in 130 years. Finally, that same month of January saw the largest monthly rise in unemployment in its history (more than 132,000 unemployed) and the Active Population Survey (EPA), indicated that there were beginning to be signs of job destruction.
The following month, there was a televised debate between the two main financial managers of the two major national parties in the middle of the electoral campaign, Solbes (PSOE) and Manuel Pizarro (PP). In this, Pizarro spoke for the first time of the economic crisis, which was denied by the then head of Economy, Solbes. In the second televised debate between Zapatero and Rajoy, Zapatero promised to achieve full employment in the new Legislature (the IX).
After the 9-M elections, serious symptoms of a worsening economy began to be seen, such as the collapse of car sales and especially the worsening of the real estate crisis, since the housing market collapsed more of 25% in February. This meant that 650,000 apartments could not be sold. In April, for the first time since 1996, the number of unemployed increased.
For the first time since 1979, unemployment rose in May. In that same month, it was announced on the 22nd that the Euribor exceeded 5% and stood at the highest level since the year 2000.
From June 9 to June 16, there was a carrier strike. At the end of that month, inflation broke the all-time record by standing at 5.1% and for the first time in a decade, the price of new housing fell in all the provincial capitals (during the first half of that year).. Despite the fact that all these economic data were not unappreciated, Zapatero said the following in an interview in El País: «Like everything, it is debatable» (answer to the question «Is there a crisis or is there no crisis?"). In June, commercial defaults increased by 118% (a debt of more than 1.82 billion euros).
On July 14, one of the largest real estate companies in the country, Martinsa-Fadesa, went into suspension of payments. Until August, the government denied the economic crisis. In November 2013, Solbes He acknowledged that the executive did not begin to take action until the following month of that year.
In August, the number of unemployed was 103,085 people, for the first time since 1998 there were more than 2.5 million unemployed and it was the worst data in that month since 1979. Also in that month, it was public that the network of real estate agencies was reduced by half in just six months. It was announced that the external deficit was 10.65% of GDP in the first half of the year. It was the second largest external debt in the world (behind only the United States).
In October, the IBEX 35 experienced its worst session (9.14%), its worst week and its worst year since its creation and also registered the largest increase in unemployment in history in a single month, with close to of 193,000 new unemployed. The construction of apartments would fall in 2009 to levels of 1960. For the first time since the crisis of 93, Spain destroyed employment.
Social Security experienced the worst month of November in its history after suffering a 3.46% drop in the interannual rate. The crisis led Zapatero to his worst grade as head of government, according to a survey by the Research Center Sociological (CIS).
At the end of that same month, almost a month after the global financial crisis broke out (the worst the world had experienced since the Crash of 1929), US President George W. Bush agreed to hold a summit in Washington for the G-8 and G-20 governments to discuss this. At first, Spain was not invited to it (this was largely due to the loss of international weight under Zapatero's presidency) despite the support shown for its presence, France and the European Commission, but finally the French Government announced the assistance of Spain, after ceding one of the chairs that corresponded to it by its current presidency of the EU and as a member of the G-8. Four years and eight months after Zapatero assumed the presidency of the Government, he finally set foot in the White House, despite the cold relationship he maintained with his US counterpart. At the Washington summit, Zapatero supported the application of a coordinated fiscal stimulus plan, attention to the real economy and greater transparency of financial operations. The most tangible result of the meeting will probably be an increase in contributions to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), so that it can act accordingly if a country's accounts need it.
On November 17, the head of the ETA military apparatus, Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu, alias Txeroki, was arrested by the French police in Cauterets (France).
The year ended, on December 31, with an ETA attack with a van bomb against the facilities of Basque television (EiTB) in Bilbao. Fortunately, there were no deaths or injuries reported.
The terrorist organization had murdered four people in that year 2008: Isaías Carrasco, Juan Manuel Piñuel (May 14), Luis Conde de la Cruz (September 22) and Ignacio Uria Mendizabal (December 3).
2009
On January 19, the Standard & Poor's (S&P) lowered the State's credit rating, removing it from triple A. The Spanish economy fell by 1.1% in the last three months of 2008, the biggest quarter-on-quarter drop since 1960. In that In the same year, the number of unemployed had increased by one million people and industrial activity registered the worst drop in 16 years (since 1993). On April 24, the EPA data on the unemployment rate of the first quarter of 2009. Spain reached four million unemployed for the first time (17.3%). Since 2008, the number of unemployed had grown by 1,836,500 people (an increase of 84.4% year-on-year), nearly 2 million jobs had been destroyed. Add to end that for the first time in thirteen years Spain braked its convergence of "per capita" income with the main powers of the eurozone.
Given the negative figures and data given by the Spanish economy, Zapatero announced Plan E on January 14, whose main objective was the fight against unemployment. The infrastructure investment plan for city councils established a a fundamental requirement for them to receive more than 8,000 million euros, this was the placement of a government propaganda poster. One of the economic destinations of that plan was to build a rural spa for 350,000 euros. Said Plan cost more of €50 billion (which was the second largest public expenditure of all developed economies) and hardly produced any job creation.
On February 23, the head of Justice, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, presented his resignation, after the political scandal that occurred due to the participation of the minister in a hunt in Jaén together with Judge Baltasar Garzón, in addition to this event, He had to add that on February 19, a strike was carried out throughout the country, for the first time in history, in Justice, which was seconded by half of the judges. His replacement in office was Francisco Caamaño.
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On March 1, autonomous elections were held in the Basque Country and Galicia, and in both there were changes in their governments. In Galicia, the Popular Party achieved an absolute majority and that led Alberto Núñez Feijóo to the presidency of the Junta de Galicia. In the Basque Country, Ibarretxe's PNV won, but the non-nationalist parties added up to the 38 deputies that gave an absolute majority, thanks in large part to the strong rise of the PSE, which went from 18 to 25 seats. On May 7, the socialist Patxi López took office as lehendakari, the first after more than thirty years who was not a nationalist. This happened after his support in his investiture of the PSE, the PP and the UPyD.
On the 19th of the same month, Spain withdrew its troops from Kosovo, which was criticized by NATO for its haste.
On March 29, the government rescued Caja Castilla-La Mancha with 9,000 million euros due to its lack of liquidity that endangered the entity's viability. The measure motivated greater pressure for the small existing Savings Banks in Spain, to which the government urged them to restructure their operations and undertake merger processes to avoid bankruptcy, for which a decree-law was approved that regulated the financial system and created the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) —the which was approved in a plenary session of Congress with the votes of the PSOE, the PP and the Canary Islands Coalition (July 8).
On April 7, Zapatero made public in a press conference called for the occasion a reshuffle of the Government by which Pedro Solbes left the Second Vice Presidency of the Government and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Spain, being replaced by Elena Salgado, who in turn left the Ministry of Public Administrations. Likewise, Ángeles González Sinde replaced César Antonio Molina at the head of the Ministry of Culture, José Blanco replaced Magdalena Álvarez at the head of the Ministry of Public Works, Ángel Gabilondo replaced Mercedes Cabrera Calvo-Sotelo at the head of the Ministry of Education, Social Policy and Sport and Trinidad Jiménez Bernat Soria at the helm of the Ministry of Health and Consumption. The until then president of the Junta de Andalucía Manuel Chaves also joined the Government as third vice president and minister of Territorial Policy.
On June 7, the elections to the European Parliament took place, in which the Popular Party led by Mayor Oreja won by 23 MEPs (42.23% of the votes) against the PSOE (21 seats and 38.51% of the votes). The Socialists lost more than 700,000 votes compared to the electoral appointment of five years ago.
On June 19, the terrorist group ETA carried out an attack that ended the life of the National Police inspector, Eduardo Puelles. On July 30, ETA carried out another attack in Palmanova where two civil guards were assassinated, Carlos Sáenz de Tejada and Diego Salva.
One of the main controversies of that year was the hunger strike of the Saharawi activist Aminetu Haidar who arrived on the island of Lanzarote against her will after not being accepted in Morocco, which withdrew her passport. Despite the fact that Minister Moratinos acknowledged that he had been informed of her expulsion a day before, her entry into the Canary Islands could not be prevented. The case lasted 32 days, until finally social and diplomatic pressure from Spain, France and the United States got Morocco to accept the return of the activist. However, the Zapatero government had to issue a statement confirming the sovereignty of Moroccan laws in the territory of Western Sahara.
That year also saw the hijacking of the tuna vessel Alakrana in Somali waters. For forty-seven days, the ship was in the hands of pirates, until they were finally released on November 17, after paying a ransom of 2.3 million euros. Another kidnapping occurred in Mauritania, where on November 29, a few days after the release of the tuna boat in Africa, three Spanish aid workers fell into the hands of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. The following year, on August 23, Rodríguez Zapatero
The year 2009 was the worst for the Spanish economy during the crisis, since at the end of the crisis Spain led the destruction of employment in the Eurozone. The total number of unemployed was close to 4.4 million people, of which 1.4 lacked unemployment benefit. In the last month of the year, unemployment increased by 55,000 people, standing at 18.8%, until it reached the levels at which it was at the beginning of the mandate of José María Aznar. The rise in unemployment in 2009 was the second highest in a single year since 1996, at the beginning of the comparable historical series. The global drop in GDP was 3.6%, the highest in decades, while six years had accumulated consecutive quarters of falls. The labor market, for its part, fell back to 2004 levels, losing more than 700,000 affiliates. The deficit reached 9.49% of GDP, more than 87,000 million euros. One of The measures that the Government took to increase its income was the rise in VAT by two points to 18%. This measure caused great controversy, and unions, businessmen, and some political parties opposed the measure, arguing that the burden would fall on workers, that sectors such as tourism and commerce would be harmed, and that it would reduce consumption, increasing unemployment.
2010
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Since January 1, 2010, Spain presided over the rotating Presidency of the European Union for 6 months until June 30, whose rotating president was Rodríguez Zapatero together with the permanent president of the EU, Herman Van Rompuy.
The year 2010 began with the economic crisis and the controversy over the VAT increase. The Government also proposed raising the retirement age to 67 years. The measure brought with it a strong social rejection, both by all the opposition parties and by the unions, which called mobilizations for February 23, describing the increase as "unnecessary", "unjustified" or even as "swindle citizens". Even people within the PSOE described it as "unassumable". On the other hand, it was also proposed by the Government to increase the period for calculating pensions to 25 years, although this proposal was withdrawn shortly after Finally, he decided not to continue with his attempt to increase the retirement age, despite not officially withdrawing the proposal, leaving the plan to the next government due to strong social pressure and majority rejection by the population.
Unemployment continued to rise that year, reaching 4.6 million people in February. That same year, the Congress of Deputies approved continuing with the VAT increase despite a PP motion against the measure that was supported by most of the groups. However, the Government finally managed to save the proposal thanks to the support of the PNV and the Canary Islands Coalition by a narrow margin of 176 votes against the suppression of the measure and 170 who supported that it not go ahead.
On March 16, the terrorist organization ETA assassinated a French gendarme for the first time.
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At the beginning of May, several very negative economic factors came together: Greece was on the verge of bankruptcy and the danger of contagion to other nations was very high. Within this framework, in an extraordinary summit of EU leaders held on May 7, the creation of a rescue fund for countries with very serious economic difficulties was approved, but at the same time and as a guarantee, member countries were required to greater effort to reduce its public debt. Zapatero promised to take measures against the deficit, he even received a call from the President of the United States, Barack Obama, asking him to carry out said measures. On May 9, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Elena Salgado, was in charge of offering the specific figures. These were: an additional spending cut of 15 billion euros to contain the deficit of 2010 and 2011.
On the 12th, Zapatero announced in Congress the largest economic adjustment plan in a democracy: he reduced the salary of civil servants by 5% and would freeze them in 2011, together with pensions. Likewise, the State cut a total of 6,000 million euros in investments, abolished the baby check and reduced spending on development aid by 600 million. These measures were strongly criticized by the opposition, both from the PP and from minority groups such as the PNV, IU, ERC or UPyD, who accused the Government of making the weakest pay for the crisis and described the cut as "unfair", "insufficient" and "improvised". Finally, Congress approved the measures, although with the sole support of the PSOE deputies (169) the vote against the PP, PNV, IU-ICV, ERC, BNG, UPyD and Nafarroa Bai (168) and thanks to the abstention of CIU, Canary Islands Coalition and UPN (13). However, all the opposition groups, even those that did not vote against, were very critical of the Executive's economic management.
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In June, the government had to face a reform of the labor market after the failure of social dialogue for two years and in view of the critical situation of unemployment, the worsening crisis of the euro in the second quarter of the year and the drop in income of the State. The reform was described as "harmful to workers" by the unions that threatened a force majeure measure: a general strike.
On the 16th of that same month, the government announced (coinciding with the debut of the Spanish soccer team in the World Cup) that it approved a new labor reform by decree, whose basic axes were: greater ease for companies to benefit from objective dismissals with compensation to the employee of 20 days per year worked;
On June 28, the Constitutional Court endorsed most of the Statute of Catalonia. On July 10,
The following month, on July 9, the executive approved a decree by which the Savings Banks will be able to allow the entry of private capital and transfer the financial business to a bank. In addition, the presence of political officials in the governing bodies of the Savings Banks is prohibited.
On September 5, the terrorist group ETA announced in a video broadcast by the British channel BBC that it had made the decision not to commit "offensive armed actions" with the aim of opening a democratic process in the resolution of the "Basque conflict".. All matches
On September 29, the two big unions, UGT and CC.OO. the sixth general strike in a democracy, the first since Zapatero came to power in 2004.
On October 20, he announced a new reshuffle in his government, with changes in seven of the seventeen ministries. Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba succeeded María Teresa Fernández de la Vega as First Vice Presidency and as Spokesperson, Rosa Aguilar succeeded Elena Espinosa in Environment, Ramón Jáuregui succeeded María Teresa Fernández de la Vega in Presidency, Trinidad Jiménez succeeded Miguel Ángel Moratinos in Foreign Affairs, Valeriano Gómez to Celestino Corbacho in Work and Leire Pajín to Trinidad Jiménez in Health. Likewise, two ministries were eliminated: Equality and Housing, which became the Secretary of State of the Ministries of Health and Development respectively.
On November 28, the autonomous elections were held in Catalonia, in which the CiU won, which added 62 seats, staying close to the 68 that give an absolute majority. For this reason, Artur Mas would be the new president of Catalonia. José Montilla's PSC obtained very poor electoral results, staying at 28 seats (losing 9 of those it won in the previous elections).
The month of December was marked by the crisis of airport air traffic controllers, who on December 3, according to the government, left their jobs without prior notice, preventing air traffic at airports and causing the closure of Spanish airspace. Despite the fact that the government described the events as a "wild strike", in the criminal trials 19 courts ruled favorably against the air traffic controllers, stating that none left their jobs and blaming Aena for the decision. The file order of Judge Vázquez Taín stands out, where it is cited that the closure of the airspace was a "political decision". The Government immediately decided to militarize air traffic control and decree the state of alarm for the first time in democracy, a circumstance that lasted until January 15, 2011, when air traffic control was returned to civilian controllers. The actions of the Government and the attorney general, Conde Pumpido, in the The conflict with controllers was criticized by the Association of Prosecutors, calling it "intolerable interference".
On the economic front, the stagnation of economic activity and the destruction of jobs continued until reaching the figure of almost 4.7 million unemployed, with an unemployment rate of over 20%.
2011
The year 2011 began with the implementation of the new anti-smoking law, which for the first time prohibited smoking in all closed public and leisure spaces, such as bars, restaurants and nightclubs. This made Spain one of the most restrictive countries in Europe in terms of legislation on tobacco consumption.
On February 2, an agreement was reached between the Government, unions and employers to reform the public pension system, reinforcing it for the future. The transition between the current system and the new one will begin in 2013 and end in 2027. In that year, only workers who have contributed 38 and a half years to Social Security will be able to retire at age 65 receiving the full amount of their pension, difference from the 35 years of contributions currently required. The rest of the workers will need to wait until they are 67 to retire. The next day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Madrid, endorsing Zapatero's reforms but asking for more adjustments.
On February 8, the CIS gave Zapatero his worst citizen evaluation since he assumed the presidency of the Government, with a score of 3.30.
On the 18th of that month, the Council of Ministers approved the decree-law for the Reinforcement of the Financial System whose most notable aspect is the requirement of a principal capital of 8% for banks and 10% for savings banks. The new regulations will force some entities to request aid from the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB).
On February 25, the Council of Ministers agreed to lower the speed limit to 110 km/h on highways to save gasoline.
Due to the massacres of civilians carried out by the Gaddafi regime, on March 19 a meeting of several countries was held at the Élysée Palace in Paris, in which Zapatero was present to discuss a military intervention against the Libyan regime, if these actions did not cease. That same day, the allies began an air attack against the Libyan dictatorship, said attack was authorized by the UN. Zapatero offered six F-18 fighters, ships and bases for the international coalition, Rajoy supported the executive's opposition. On March 22, 99% of Congress supported the decisions against Gaddafi.
On April 2, he announced that he would not stand for re-election in 2012, also announcing that the PSOE would open a primary period to choose the new candidate.
On May 15, a massive popular protest movement began throughout Spain. That day thousands of citizens demonstrated peacefully in 50 cities across the nation. This was due to the desire to change state policy, the cessation of job destruction and a more dignified future for society, and to protest against antisocial reforms, bipartisanship, and the current electoral law. The march gave rise to the creation of the 15-M Movement (May 15) or the Indignados. This movement had as its epicenter the Puerta del Sol in Madrid. Tens of thousands of people joined the movement as the election day of May 22 approached.
On May 22, the regional and municipal elections were held, the PP obtained 37.53% of the votes and the PSOE, 27.79%. The difference between the two was around 10 points. The PP obtained an absolute majority in 8 of the thirteen autonomous communities where they were presented (Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Valencian Community, La Rioja, Madrid Community and Murcia). In addition, the PSOE lost the presidency in Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura for the first time, as well as the mayoralties of Barcelona (for the first time) and that of Seville.
Between April and June 2011, the so-called "cucumber crisis" took place, an outbreak of fecal bacteria that caused 34 deaths and more than 500 infections in Central Europe. Germany and other countries accuse the cucumber imported from Spain of having carried this disease. Although the accusation was proven false, several countries paralyzed the purchase of Spanish vegetables, which caused losses in national agriculture estimated at around 200 million euros. On June 26, former minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos lost the final vote to preside over the Organization of the United Nations for Food and Agriculture (FAO), being elected the Brazilian José Graziano da Silva.
On July 11, the last ministerial change in the Zapatero presidency took place; the then Minister of Development, José Blanco was appointed spokesman for the Executive and Antonio Camacho Vizcaíno took over from Pérez Rubalcaba (he had been proclaimed two days before, PSOE candidate for the presidency of the Government) in the Ministry of the Interior. The Vice Presidencies were reduced to two. Thus, Elena Salgado was the first vice president, while Manuel Chaves was the second vice president of the Executive.
In July it was made public that for the first time in the recent history of Spain population was being lost. Emigrations were greater than immigrations.
On the 29th of that same month, he appeared at a press conference after the last Council of Ministers of the semester and announced the call for early general elections for November 20 of the same year, it was the seventh time that a electoral advance since the arrival of Democracy.
On Tuesday, August 2, the Spanish risk premium exceeded for the first time 400 points over its differential with the German, in other words it exceeded the rescue zone and Spain also had to pay interest of 6, 2% for 10-year bonds. In that week, the Madrid Stock Exchange closed its worst week since May 2010, losing more than 10%.
In November 2013, Zapatero revealed that he received three suggestions for him to accept an international bailout.
On August 23, Zapatero and Rajoy agreed to reform the Spanish Constitution to limit the public deficit.
On October 5, Zapatero authorized Spanish participation in the US anti-missile shield, with the Rota Naval Base (Cádiz) as the main center of operations.
On October 17, an International Peace Conference was held in San Sebastián, which ended with a document signed by all attendees in which the terrorist organization ETA was asked to definitively cease the armed struggle, and the Spanish and French governments (once the end of the violence has been produced) to negotiate the consequences of this end. Three days later, on October 20, the terrorist group ETA announced in a statement the "definitive cessation of its armed activity". After 829 fatalities, ETA put an end to 43 years of death and terror.
On the 28th of that same month, the EPA survey was made public, where for the first time in the history of Spain there were more than five million unemployed. The unemployment figure reached 21.52%. It also left the dramatic figure of more than 1.4 million members with all their relatives unemployed.
On November 20, the PSOE, headed by Rubalcaba, lost the general elections, winning 110 seats and 28.7% of the vote (it lost more than 4 million votes compared to the last appointment with the polls), On the other hand, Mariano Rajoy's PP achieved its best results (even surpassing Aznar's results in the 2000 elections) by obtaining 186 seats and 44.6% of the vote. One of the communities where the debacle was best staged Socialist was in Catalonia, there he had always won since the first general elections; the PSC-PSOE. But in these, it was surpassed by CiU, the PSC lost 11 deputies, of the 25 it had in the last elections.
Mariano Rajoy would replace Rodríguez Zapatero as head of the Government of Spain.
In the economic aspect, the Active Population Survey (EPA) published at the end of January 2012, that the year 2011 ended with 5,273,600 unemployed and that the unemployment rate reached 22.85%. Since the end of 2007, 2.7 million jobs had been destroyed in Spain, 55% in the construction sector.
On December 30, the new government of the nation, chaired by Mariano Rajoy, decorated Zapatero with the necklace of the Order of Isabel la Católica and awarded another series of decorations to all the ministers of his last cabinet.
Former President of the Government
Upon leaving Moncloa, Zapatero became part of the Council of State as an ex officio member: on February 9, 2012, he took office. He also chairs the Global Progress Foundation, of which Bill Clinton and Felipe González are part, among others, whose headquarters are located in some PSOE offices on Calle Gobelas in Madrid. There he has a chief of staff and a secretary. He was entering 78,000 euros as a State Councilor and 74,000 euros as former president of the government, until July 2012 when the Government approved a royal decree that included the incompatibility between "any economic benefit provided for the termination of a position in the public sector" and a second salary "charged to public budgets.
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According to reports, he is preparing a book about his experiences during the economic crisis that his government had to face. According to members of his entourage, the book "will be self-critical", along the lines of the speech he gave on February 3, 2012 at the last PSOE congress in which he recognized two major mistakes during his tenure: noticing the seriousness of the crisis belatedly and not having burst the real estate bubble in time. On May 10 he was going to attend the presentation of Ignacio Sánchez Cuenca's book on his government entitled & # 34; Years of changes, years of crisis. Eight years of socialist government", but he finally gave up and was replaced by former socialist minister Carme Chacón. The other book that has been published that takes stock of his management is written by two of his collaborators at Moncloa, Andrés Ortega and Ángel Pascual-Ramsey, entitled & # 34; What has happened to us? The failure of a country". On December 11, 2013, in an interview with the Catalan Autonomous channel, TV3, he explains that on occasions they have tried to insult him by calling him "Catalan".
Until now, he has refrained from intervening in political debates (he lacks a press officer), unlike his two predecessors José María Aznar and Felipe González. What he has done, like the latter, is give conferences (the first was on March 21, 2012 in Maracaibo (Venezuela) and participate in international forums (such as the one held in Doha on May 3, 2012). In Doha he granted his first interview as former president with the Al Jazeera chain.He spoke with the former PSOE leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba quite frequently and with Mariano Rajoy only a couple of times in five months.He maintains his friendship with Carme Chacón, José Antonio Alonso and Trinidad Jiménez lives in Somosaguas (Madrid) in a rented house.
On December 19, 2013, he was invited and interviewed on the El Gran Wyoming program, El intermedio (La Sexta).
Two years later, in January, hosted by José Bono, Zapatero met with the general secretary of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, and with his party's number two, Íñigo Errejón.
In February of that same year, Zapatero met Cuban President Raúl Castro in Havana. Days later he made a high-level visit to Bolivia. He was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in the city of La Paz and received the "Condor of the Andes", the highest award granted by the Bolivian State, from President Evo Morales.. In March he also visited Western Sahara for a forum sponsored by the Moroccan government; Both this and the Cuba trip received criticism from the Government and Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo for considering them inadequate.
In 2014, Zapatero began mediation work with the Venezuelan government, sponsored at that time by UNASUR. As an objective —explained the former president of Colombia Ernesto Samper, general secretary of UNASUR from 2014 to 2017— to try to dialogue between the political sectors with the conformation of three spaces: The first of electoral guarantees, was in charge of the former president Martín Torrijos, in the second headed by Zapatero on institutional reforms that sought to change the conditions of institutional imbalance in Venezuela that exist as a result of the concentration of powers and a third dialogue, led by former President Leonel Fernández, to guide the social part and stabilization. Different sectors of the opposition They have different opinions about their efforts. Henrique Capriles asked him for explanations for his trips to the country and declared in a later interview that Zapatero had done nothing but prop up Maduro. However, in September 2016, opposition deputy Timoteo Zambrano thanked Zapatero for his efforts to free Maduro. Gabriel San Miguel, from the opposition Voluntad Popular party. The former president of the National Assembly, Julio Borges, denounced that during the talks process in the Dominican Republic at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the government delegation, Delcy Rodríguez and Zapatero had threatened them with political persecution and with ending up in jail if they did not sign an agreement in said talks. In 2018, Zapatero was declared by the National Assembly of Venezuela, with an opposition majority, as a person inadmissible for a possible dialogue with 53 votes in favor, 43 against and 1 abstention. In 2020 the opposition member María Corina Machado declared about the ac Zapatero's situation as a mediator who had created a 'Zapatero Effect' for which every time he visited the country the arrests of political prisoners skyrocketed and that he dedicated himself to deceiving and dividing Venezuelan society.In February 2020 he met with Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. The meeting was held at the Venezuelan government headquarters and the first lady, Cilia Flores, and the vice presidents of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez and Jorge Rodríguez were also present. In December of that same year, Zapatero attended the parliamentary elections as an international observer that occurred at that time, where he gave a speech broadcast on Venezuelan state television, asking the European Union to reflect on the strategy to follow regarding Venezuela.
In 2015, he left the Council of State to become Chairman of the Advisory Board of the German foundation Institute for Cultural Diplomacy. In 2016, he was appointed Chairman of the Socially Responsible Recruitment Forum, a position he continues to hold today.
In October 2020, he participated in the round table organized by Cátedra China with the title China-European Union dialogue, Rivalry.
Rodríguez Zapatero participated in the China-Europe Forum on Reform and Globalization, organized by China Daily, in March 2021, in which he used references to the book La China del Siglo XXI as stated in the article Global China for a shared future of certainties and hope published in the China Daily Global edition.
Ideology
When it came to placing himself on the political spectrum, Zapatero stated that "More than a social democrat I am a social democrat". For Zapatero, "The program of a modern left goes through a well-governed economy with a surplus in public accounts, moderate taxes and a limited public sector. All this, combined with the extension of civil and social rights".
Zapatero stated that although "There are many people in this country who miss a centrist party,"I will never be from that centrist party." Regarding his right-wing rivals, he qualified his statement to the popular magazine Marie Claire that "the right has taught me nothing" by saying that "The right in this country it has taught me that the left advances democracy". He also stressed that "The great advances in the world have been made defending the cause of the dominated".
In this sense, Zapatero has spoken on numerous occasions about how the memory of his grandfather who was shot, Juan Rodríguez Lozano, motivated his political convictions. Zapatero is also shown to be a pacifist and supporter of dialogue to resolve conflicts, having promoted the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, the Alliance of Civilizations or the peace process with ETA, however he intervened militarily in the war in Libya and sent troops to the war in Afghanistan. In this sense, the Prime Minister, concerned about a necessary fight against environmental deterioration to which the same resources are not allocated as the war against terrorism, has stated that climate change "has already caused more victims that international terrorism and its destructive potential is also much higher".
Similarly, in the prologue to Jordi Sevilla's book De Nuevo Socialismo, Zapatero declared:
"Ideology means logical idea and in politics there are no logical ideas, there are ideas subject to debate that are accepted in a deliberative process, but never by the evidence of a logical deduction (...) If in politics it does not serve the logic, that is, if in the domain of the organization of coexistence they are not valid nor the inductive method nor the deductive method, but only the discussion on different options then without any objective thread that guides and is.
Posts held
- Deputated by Leon at the Congress of Deputies (1986-2004).
- Provincial Secretary of the PSOE de León (1988-2000).
- General Secretary of the PSOE (2000-2012).
- Member of Madrid at the Congress of Deputies (2004-2011).
- President of the Government of Spain (2004-2011).
- Chairman of the IDEAS Foundation (since 2008).
- Acting President of the European Council (first semester of 2010).
Distinctions and decorations
- Spanish
- Nicolás Salmerón Award for Human Rights in its individual category (2009).
- Knight of the Order of Isabel the Catholic (2011).
- Francisca Pedraza Award against Gender Violence (2016).
- Foreigners
- Grand Cross of the Order of Christ (Portuguese Republic, 2006).
- Gran Cruz de la Orden del Libertador San Martín (Argentina, 2009).
Published works
- The Dilemma: 600 days of vertigo. Editorial Planeta. Year 2013. ISBN 9788408122777
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