Spain

Zapatero was sworn in in April 2004 and immediately ordered the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. Other proposed legislation concerned a “gender violence law” aimed at eradicating domestic violence against women and other such policy matters striving for the equality of the sexes, as well as homosexual rights and the liberalization of abortion. In a direct move Zapatero appointed eight women to his Cabinet, including the country’s first woman deputy prime minister. In February 2005 the country voted in favour of the EU constitution in a referendum, the first in Europe to be held on the issue. The referendum was largely notable for the poor turnout: only 42 per cent.

In June 2006 Zapatero announced that he was willing to open discussions with ETA, after the group had called a ceasefire in March. However, the discussions were derailed after ETA renewed its operations with a bombing at Madrid’s Barajas airport in December, killing two people. The failure of Zapatero’s initiative exposed his government to criticism from the PP that it had been willing to compromise with terrorists. Also controversial was the government’s proposed “law on historical memory”, which condemned the actions of the Franco government and sanctioned the removal of all remaining public symbols of the dictatorship. Although it was opposed by the PP, which accused Zapatero of seeking to reopen old divisions, the Spanish parliament approved the bill in October 2007. Also in October guilty verdicts were handed down to a number of people involved in the Madrid train bombings of 2004. In March 2008 the PSOE was re-elected for a second term. Although it gained five more seats in parliament, the party failed to win enough seats to govern with an absolute majority.