Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has reason to be proud of his first year as Spain’s prime minister. He has transformed Spain from a pro-Bush, churchbound bulwark of conservatism to a more secular, female-friendly, Europhile beacon of progress, a model of how civil rights can be extended even in the shadow of terrorism.
This smiling, stooped man with wide eyes and dangling arms was dismissed initially even among his supporters as an insipid Mr. Bean figure. But since he took office a year ago he has emerged as a brave leader with strong convictions who so far hasn’t put a foot wrong.
A reforming impulse, the idea that strengthening people’s rights is popular and can only win support, sweeps through the measures set in train over the past year: On abortion, divorce, violence against women, removing compulsory religion in schools. There’s a feeling of optimism, exhilaration at the fresh breezes gusting through Spain’s musty corridors of power.
Half Zapatero’s Cabinet ministers are women, strong sensible leaders with decades of experience. They control not just health, culture and the environment, but heavy-hitting ministries of housing, education, agriculture and public works. Their appointment has given more credibility to his commitment to sexual equality than any number of promises.
Zapatero is Spain’s first leader in 30 years of democracy to dare to sand away the decayed encrustations of Francoism. He’s removing statues, opening and returning Stasi-like civil war files, recognizing and compensating victims of past injustices.
Not everyone agrees with all this. “Zapatero has divided Spanish society and reopened old wounds,” thundered the conservative Popular Party’s parliamentary spokesman, Eduardo Zaplana. To which Zapatero responded with the undeniable truth: “The right wing in this country is profoundly allergic to reform. Then they end up accepting it.” The church huffs and puffs against any challenge to traditional values, but Zapatero had a stroke of luck last month, when the bishops’ conference elected Ricardo Blazquez to lead them.
He is a moderate cleric who defied the traditional conservatism of the Catholic hierarchy by announcing that he wanted friendly dialogue with the government.
Zapatero’s brave new Spain began with his first and boldest step, announced a year ago : The withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. He did so, he said, because this was the overwhelming wish of the Spanish people.
That decision dispelled overnight any suggestion that he might be a mere ponderous, trimming waffler, and set the tone for subsequent months. Losing the friendship of George Bush only increased his standing among his compatriots. But Foreign Secretary Miguel Moratinos, an experienced globetrotter, is today in Washington rebuilding relations.
For Zapatero has an easy charm and grace his crabby conservative predecessor lacked. Rather than court confrontation, he seeks dialogue, while conceding nothing. He has stepped through the political minefields of the Basque country without alienating the ruling Basque nationalists in their desire for sovereignty, but has kept the initiative at every turn.
Far from hugging the middle ground in a self-defeating attempt to be all things to all voters, Zapatero has plunged headlong into a radical agenda. He has found a conciliatory language for announcing controversial reforms, such as declaring he only wants to extend the rights of every citizen.
For example, on immigration, he launched an ambitious plan to legalize those already settled and working, so they could stop fearing expulsion and start paying taxes. When EU members remonstrated, he invited them to consider Spain’s experience as a humane way forward Europe-wide.
In the traumatic aftermath of the March 11 bombings, he didn’t launch a civil liberties crackdown — which would evoke horrid memories in Spain — but reorganized and beefed up the security, intelligence and prison services.
I won’t let you down, he insists. “I will lead Spain to the best moments of its history,” he promised the other day. For the moment, Spaniards believe him. Polls put Zapatero way ahead of his rivals. The economy, in the safe hands of his Treasury Minister Pedro Solbes is ticking over nicely.
This resolute pursuit of left-wing ideas, so different from the third way compromises of New Labour, even makes electoral sense.
Zapatero, whose family suffered under Franco’s dictatorship, is a man of strongly held ideals, but he’s also done the political arithmetic. He’s calculated that listening to what people want and extending their rights, in the teeth of noisy opposition, wins votes — and loses none.
