Zapatero, José Luis Rodríguez (1960-…), served as prime minister of Spain from 2004 to 2011. Zapatero belongs to the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). He was a member of the Congress of Deputies from 1986 to 2011. The Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes, the Spanish legislature.
Zapatero represented the province of León in the Congress of Deputies from 1986 to 2004. From 2004 to 2011, he represented the province of Madrid. From 1988 to 2000, Zapatero served as secretary-general of the Socialist Federation of León. Since 2000, he has been secretary-general of the PSOE.
The PSOE, led by Zapatero, came to power following a parliamentary election on March 14, 2004. The election took place just a few days after a series of bombs had exploded on commuter trains in Madrid, killing nearly 200 people. Many Spaniards believed that the governing Popular Party (PP) had lied when it blamed the Basque terrorist group ETA, rather than Islamic terrorists, for the attacks. As a result, many voters supported the PSOE rather than the PP. Zapatero was sworn in as prime minister on April 17, 2004. The PSOE was reelected in 2008, and Zapatero remained in office.
As prime minister, Zapatero enacted many social reforms, including legalization of same-sex marriage; introduction of fast-track divorces and a gender-equality law; an increase in minimum wages and pensions; and an amnesty (pardon) for individuals working illegally in Spain. Zapatero’s government also passed a bill that formally condemned Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, which lasted from 1939 to 1975 (see Spain (History) ).
Zapatero was born on Aug. 4, 1960, in Valladolid, Spain. His grandfather was a Republican army officer in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Zapatero joined the PSOE in 1979, when he was 19 years old. He earned a law degree from the University of León in 1983, and he taught law at the university until 1991. In 1990, Zapatero married the Spanish opera singer Sonsoles Espinosa. The couple have two daughters, Laura and Alba.
