Tough job ahead for new Spanish Prime Minister

JOSÉ Luis Rodriguez Zapatero brought the Socialist Party from the political wilderness to a spectacular poll victory on Sunday, and will now need his cool head and calm temper to unite Spain after its worst terrorist attack.

Mr Zapatero, who until Thursday’s bombing was considered an outsider for Spain’s top job, had angered many in his own party with his lack of aggression in the months after he took the leadership in 2000, following a heavy electoral defeat.

But his tendency to compromise may prove a valuable asset as he looks to form a government with left-wing allies or regional parties.

The unflappable Mr Zapatero, 43, who became Spain’s youngest member of parliament at 26, faces a tough task, as his government will need to appease powerful Catalan and Basque nationalists keen to wrestle more power from Madrid. He will also need to court the unions and old-style socialists and keep the loyalty of powerful barons who control the regional branches of his party.

Mr Zapatero is often compared to Tony Blair. The former law student has stuck to a policy of "calm change" instead of rupture with old-school socialism.

"He is a 15-round fighter, the kind that gets into trouble in the first four rounds, and then gradually takes over," Manuel Garcia, his former law professor, told El Pais newspaper.

Unlike many of his fiery countrymen, Mr Zapatero is famed for his coolness and colleagues say they have never seen him angry. Married with two children, he prides himself on his politeness - but the word most used to describe him is "dull".

"He is a very serene person. He received the news of the result with a strange calm," said a senior socialist politician of Mr Zapatero’s reaction to his election win.

Mr Zapatero became interested in politics at the age of 16, when he heard the will of his grandfather, an army colonel executed by the fascists in the Spanish civil war, who wrote: "I die innocent and forgive".

He joined the Socialist Party at the age of 18 and rose quickly through the ranks after it won power in 1982 under Felipe Gonzalez, its charismatic former prime minister and one of Mr Zapatero’s heroes.

Ironically, Mr Gonzalez, who held power for 14 years until he was ousted by Jose Maria Aznar amid corruption scandals, was one of Mr Zapatero’s most outspoken critics in his early days as party leader when his moderation angered many in a party baying for blood.

He stirred outrage by offering a cross-party pact with the Popular Party (PP) against ETA, but held out and won the day.

But critics say the new prime minister lacks the killer instinct and point to his failure while opposition leader to capitalise on a string of unpopular moves by the PP, including a bungled labour reform, an oil spill and the war in Iraq.

More recently, the revelation that a coalition partner of the Socialists in the regional government of Catalonia held secret talks with ETA prompted the PP to question Mr Zapatero’s control over his own party.

For some, his lack of aggression was exemplified in a recent TV interview. When asked what he would do if confronted by the leader of ETA in the street, Mr Zapatero replied: "I would not look him in the face."