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downfall in 1996. Being unconnected with
the scandals and failures of the later
González administration was, however,
perhaps an advantage, and he brought
“clean hands” to the party leadership when
he was elected to that office in 2000.
As the Socialists had failed to regain
power in the parliamentary election of
2000, Zapatero made promises for the fol-
lowing election that included relief of
unemployment, increased support for edu-
cation, subsidies for new housing, and a
pledge to work more sympathetically with
regional autonomists. These failed to
improve his party's position in local elec-
tions; however, in 2004, as the time drew
near for the national decision on whether
the outgoing conservative leader, J
OSÉ
M
ARÍA
A
ZNAR
, would be followed by his
hand-picked successor, a totally unexpected
event changed the political situation. The
terrorist attack on railroad passengers in
M
ADRID
and its vicinities in March of that
year and widespread belief that the incum-
bent government had tried to shift blame
from Islamic militants to Basque separatists
led to voter repudiation of Aznar's party
and a parliamentary majority for the Social-
ists and their allies.
Zapatero was installed as prime minister
and immediately responded to widespread
public demand by withdrawing Spanish
forces from the U.S.-led coalition that had
occupied Iraq. Zapatero would henceforth
have to demonstrate that he was not afraid
of Islamic terrorists by vigorously punishing
the perpetrators of the Madrid attack. His
announced goal of reestablishing Spanish
cooperation with the majority of the Euro-
pean Union countries was generally well
received and the cooling of relations with
Washington did not seem to bother most
Spaniards. The public was less sure about
his initiatives on immigration (particularly
the ever-mounting number of new arrivals
from North Africa), and his proposal to ease
the legalization of resident status for illegal
residents was widely perceived as impru-
dent. In any event, when Zapatero
responded to the December 2004 earth-
quake and tsunami disaster in the Indian
Ocean region with the largest initial pledge
of aid from any country, Spaniards knew
that their new prime minister shared at
least one characteristic with all of his prede-
cessors: a determination to assert a global
presence and a global status for his nation.
That he also shared his predecessors' deter-
mination to reject the pretensions of B
ASQUE
NATIONALISM
was demonstrated in January
2005. In response to a new declaration by
the Basque regional legislature of their fun-
damental right to sovereignty, Zapatero
declared that their claim had no basis in
law, was a threat to the unity of the Spanish
nation, and could only injure the interests
of the Basque people.
Rojas, Fernando de
(1465-1541)
Spanish writer
The known facts of this author's life are few
and much disputed. A university graduate
who subsequently practiced law, he is
believed to have been of a converso family
(his parents were ostensibly forced to aban-
don Judaism in favor of Christianity). Per-
haps due to discrimination he left his
original home in C
ASTILE
and settled in
Talavera, where he married, prospered, and
evidently served for a time as mayor. He is
generally acknowledged to be the author of
the work known as
La Celestina.
This “dia-
logue novel” published in 1499 is esteemed
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