The Spanish prime minister’s announcement that he will not run as the Socialist candidate in the 2012 general election was, by the time he made it on April 2, hardly a surprise. Rumours and reports to this effect had been leaking out of the party camp for weeks. But while this decision clears the air of any lingering uncertainty about José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s future, that of his party remains very much shrouded in mystery. According to the Socialists, their leader’s calculated withdrawal puts them on the front foot as the May 22 local elections approach. Zapatero, they reason, has taken the initiative, choosing when to go rather than allowing events to dictate his course. This is … [Read more...] about Zapatero was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t
aznar
Aznar lets his hair down
Question: who works for Rupert Murdoch, leads a prestigious think-tank, is an accomplished long-distance runner and learned to speak fluent English in his early fifties? Answer: José María Aznar, prime minister of Spain between 1996 and 2004. The above description is highly selective, of course, but it gives an idea of the man we are talking about – probably just the kind of idea Aznar himself would like us to have of him: an active figure on the right-leaning world stage whose discipline and motivation have given him influence and a well-honed body. Aznar, 57, has become something of a fetish figure for many on the Spanish right, and with good reason. He governed for two … [Read more...] about Aznar lets his hair down
No end in sight to Zapatero’s succession dilemma
As José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero stood listening to the barrage of booing and shouts for him to resign while he attended the October 12 national festivities in Madrid, the idea of enduring this kind of vitriol until 2016 can hardly have been appealing. And yet, although the prime minister is going through by far his toughest spell since taking office in 2004, he has still not announced whether he will run for a third term. Even King Juan Carlos expressed his annoyance at the abuse voiced at the military parade and the government attributed it to elements of the extreme right. However, while Zapatero has heard it before, the boos ringing in his ears this year represent widespread anger at … [Read more...] about No end in sight to Zapatero’s succession dilemma
Spain and Morocco’s annual spat over for another year
It has become a summer classic; argy-bargy across the Strait of Gibraltar. With the arrival of September’s UN gathering in New York, the Spanish prime minister and Moroccan king have drawn an apparently effortless line under several weeks of apparently simmering tensions, blazing front-page headlines and much talk of a diplomatic crisis. “The photograph is the main thing,” José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero muttered toward Mohammed VI in New York as the pair smiled amid the camera flashes, the Spaniard later explaining that there had been little in the way of details included in their discussion. There was no need, he said; that was what the upcoming summits and ministerial meetings would deal … [Read more...] about Spain and Morocco’s annual spat over for another year
Opposing Spain’s abortion law: don’t blame the Church
On July 5, Spain introduced legislation bringing the country’s abortion laws into line with those across northern Europe. In essence, the new law allows the procedure without restrictions up to 14 weeks and gives 16-year-olds the right to have abortions without parental consent. Until now abortion had been illegal unless the woman could prove that she was raped, that the foetus was malformed, or that the pregnancy endangered her physical or mental health. In practice, the latter reason was used across a network of private clinics, which perform around 100,000 abortions a year. The issue has been reported in the international media as a battle between the secular Socialist Party … [Read more...] about Opposing Spain’s abortion law: don’t blame the Church
Garzón, the PP, and a Byzantine justice system
As growing numbers of people around the world will know by now, investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzón is in hot water. The man best-known for having ordered the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in 1998 is being investigated by his colleagues in the Supreme Court on three counts. If found guilty, his career will be over. There is something of a whiff of conspiracy about this sudden fall from grace. The first investigation is into accusations that he dropped tax fraud charges against executives of Banco Santander in return for $302,000-worth of sponsorship by the bank for a series of lectures on human rights he gave at New York University in 2003. This hearing is currently underway. The … [Read more...] about Garzón, the PP, and a Byzantine justice system
March 11’s divisive legacy
In the middle of February, the Spanish government announced that it was going to “repair” the memory of the poet Miguel Hernández, a Republican former goatherd who was jailed by the dictator Francisco Franco and died in prison in 1942, at the age of 31. The Socialist government pledged to offer Hernández, whose centenary is being celebrated this year, “the tribute, the memory and the admiration that his work merits,” said Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega. “We all share that same rejection of any form of oppression, that same rebellion in the face of injustice and that determination to dream and create a decent country and a better world.” The news of this homage … [Read more...] about March 11’s divisive legacy