Spanish Socialists bid farewell to Zapatero

Feb 3, 2012, 17:01 GMT

Seville, Spain - Spain's Socialist Party on Friday bid farewell to Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, 51, who led the party for over a decade and governed Spain for nearly eight years.

The opposition party is to elect a new leader on Saturday as it licks its wounds after a massive defeat to conservatives in regional elections in May and in parliamentary elections in November.

In a speech to the party congress in Seville, Zapatero defended his much-criticized handling of Spain's economic crisis.

The economy had 'weaknesses,' but 'we would not have experienced the very difficult economic and employment situation' without the influence of 'global and European events,' he said.

Zapatero had been a 'great prime minister' of the party, comparable to 1982-1996 premier Felipe Gonzalez, the party's organizational secretary Marcelino Iglesias said. He credited Zapatero with presiding over 'modernization and progress.'

The congress will seek a new direction for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) after its fall from power.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's centre-right People's Party (PP) now has an absolute majority in parliament, and governs 11 of Spain's 17 semi-autonomous regions.

Zapatero became PSOE secretary-general in 2000, and won a surprise election victory in 2004, when Islamist terrorist bombings helped the Socialists to topple the conservative government.

Immediately after taking power, Zapatero announced the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, a move which led to a temporary deterioration of Spain's relations with the United States.

The Zapatero era was marked by bold social reforms such as homosexual marriage, a strong promotion of women's rights, easier access to abortion and divorce. The reforms turned Catholic Spain into one of the most liberal countries in Europe, putting the government on a collision course with the Vatican.

During his second term, Zapatero came under scathing criticism for his handling of the global crisis, which hit Spain particularly hard.

The crisis sparked a meltdown of Spain's overheated property sector, which had earlier contributed nearly 10 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. Rajoy blames Zapatero for the state of the economy, which is about to slip into a new recession while unemployment has soared to a record of nearly 23 per cent.

The PSOE leadership contest will pit former interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, 60, against former defence minister Carme Chacon, 41.

Critics of the PSOE said neither candidate represented a break with the past, since both had held several ministerial posts under Zapatero.

The two candidates were running neck-to-neck, making it difficult to predict which one will take the PSOE into the post-Zapatero era.