FACTBOX: Facts about Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:23am EDT
 
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(Reuters) - Following are key facts about Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who secured re-election for his Socialist party on Sunday.

-- Apart from a stint as a law teacher, Zapatero has devoted his entire life to politics, and was the youngest member of parliament when first elected in 1986.

-- In 2004, he ousted the conservative, pro-U.S. Popular Party in an election held days after al Qaeda-linked train bombings killed 191 people in Madrid. Zapatero benefited from a voter backlash against the PP's handling of the attacks.

-- Within weeks of taking office, he followed through on a campaign pledge to withdraw troops serving in Iraq.

-- Zapatero controversially started peace talks with the Basque separatist guerrilla group ETA, which wants independence for Basque territories in Spain and France. He ended the negotiations after ETA bombed a Madrid airport car park, killing two people, in December 2006.

-- Zapatero's government has supported a number of social reforms, including the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2005. It has also reduced the importance of religion in the school curriculum, straining relations with the Catholic Church.

-- Zapatero was born in Valladolid on August 4, 1960, and studied law. He is married, with two daughters.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

 

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