José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (born August 4, 1960) is the Prime Minister of Spain. His party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, won the general election on March 14, 2004. Notable actions of his government have included withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq and legalizing same-sex marriages. Another notable government act was the removal of one of the last remaining statues of General Franco, the former fascist dictator.

Zapatero enters politics

Zapatero, accompanied by his family, attended his first political rally on August 15, 1976. It was a meeting organized by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) in Gijón. Political parties had been legal since July 21, 1976 but the Socialist Party was not legalized until February 1977. At the rally, Felipe González, the PSOE leader and future Prime Minister of Spain, gave a stirring speech which had a profound impact upon Zapatero. González said that "the Socialists' goal was the seizure of power by the working class to transform the ownership of the means of production" and that "the PSOE was a revolutionary party but not revolutionarist or aventurist as it defended the use of elections as a means to come to power".

Related Topics:
August 15 - 1976 - PSOE - Gijón - July 21 - February - 1977 - Felipe González - Prime Minister of Spain

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Zapatero and his family had traditionally been attracted to the Communist Party, as it was the only well-organized leftist party before Francisco Franco's death in 1975. After the rally in Gijón, however, they started to believe that the Socialist Party had the most potential for the Spanish left. In 1977, the year of the first democratic elections, Zapatero supported both the Communist and Socialist Parties. He officially chose the Socialists in 1979, enrolling as a member on February 23, 1979. In 1982 he became the head of the youth organization.

Related Topics:
Francisco Franco - 1975 - 1977 - February 23 - 1979 - 1982

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In 1986, he was elected to represent the province of León in the Cortes (Parliament), becoming its youngest member. Zapatero organized a coalition to obtain the mayoralty in León in 1987, justifying the coalition by arguing that it was necessary to change the "negative dynamics" of the city, to "normalize" its democratic life, and to end its "bad relations" with other institutions, such as the Regional Government of Castilla y León.

Related Topics:
1986 - León - Cortes - Castilla y León

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In 1988 Zapatero was appointed Secretary General of the PSOE in León after a complex internal fight that ended a long period of divisions and internal confrontation. The situation was so bad that Ramón Rubial, then national president of the PSOE, asked the party in León to create some semblance of unity before the provincial conference later that year. At that time, Zapatero defined himself as a "left-wing conservative," meaning that he considered himself an heir of the Spanish left which lost the Spanish Civil War.

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Zapatero was reelected secretary general with 68% of the ballots in the 7th Regional Conference held in (July 1994). In 1995, new regional and local elections were held. Its results were unfavorable for the Socialist Party in León as they lost four seats in the mayoralty of León and two seats in the regional parliament of Catilla-León. The results were influenced by the bad economic situation and corruption accusations against the party. In 1996, following the General Election, Zapatero kept his seat at the Congress of Deputies. The next year, Zapatero was again reelected as the PSOE Secretary General of León, and was also placed on the National Executive, the party's national governing body.

Related Topics:
July - 1994 - 1995 - 1996

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