Home > José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero ( August 4, 1960) is the 5th Prime Minister of the Spanish Government since the democratic restoration in 1978, following his party's victory in the March 14 Spanish general election. He was sworn in by King Juan Carlos on April 17, 2004. He has been General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since 2000.

Rodríguez Zapatero was born in Valladolid but his family (with a long tradition of left-wing politics) was from León. His grandfather was a Republican captain who was executed by the Nationalists at the start of the Spanish Civil WarTeruel, east of Madrid. For an article about the 1820-1823 civil war in Spain, see: Spanish Civil War, 1820-1823 The Spanish Civil War ( 1936 1939) was the result of complex political differences between the Republicans — supporters of the government of t in 1936Events January-February January 15 The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio, for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. January 20 Death of George V of the United Kingdom. His son Edward VIII succeedes him as King of th. He attended his first political rally in GijónGijon ( Asturian, Xixon) is a coastal city in the autonomous community of Asturias in Spain. Its name comes from the Latin word Gigia. The name was originally applied to a small peninsula nowadays called Cimadevilla, literally "top of village," between tw in 1977, when Spain was about to hold its first democratic elections following the death of long-time dictator Francisco Franco. The speaker at the rally was the PSOE leader Felipe González (who became Prime Minister of Spain in 1982 and served until 1996), and Rodríguez Zapatero joined the PSOE soon after.

By 1982 Rodríguez Zapatero headed the socialist youth organisation in his home province of León. In 1986, he became the youngest member of parliament in Spain when he won a seat representing the province. In 1988 he was elected to head the regional chapter of the socialist party in León, and in 1997 he was appointed to the Federal Executive Committee, the party's governing body.

In 2000, after the PSOE had lost its second successive election to José María Aznar's People's Party, Rodríguez Zapatero was elected party leader as the representative of a modernising faction of the party known as Nueva Vía ("New Way"), which drew its inspiration from Tony Blair's " Third Way" politics. But the People's Party continued to lead the PSOE in opinion polls until the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks.

Rodríguez Zapatero has been insistent that a PSOE government will not be "soft on terrorism" and will not allow regional nationalists to endanger Spanish unity. This issue became important in the elections, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11, which were initially widely thought to be the work of Basque terrorist organization ETA.

Upon winning the election, Rodríguez Zapatero's first action was to order the Spanish troops home from Iraq. Zapatero also announced his intention to undertake limited reforms to the Spanish Constitution and legalize same-sex marriage. On the issue of Gibraltar, Zapatero has taken a strong line with the United Kingdom, complaining strongly at Gibraltar's celebrations of its tercentenary and rejecting the Gibraltarians' requests for Spain to recognise its right to self-determination.

In October 2004 Zapatero's government undertook the task of morally and legally rehabilitating those who were repressed during and after the Spanish Civil War, by instituting a Memory Commission chaired by his Vice-president María Teresa Fernández de la Vega .

Married in 1990 with Sonsoles Espinosa and father of two girls, Laura (1993) and Alba (1995), Rodríguez Zapatero is a fan of the Barcelona football team, the first among Prime Ministers in Spain.