91-544: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero PSOE José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero PSOE The 2008 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 9 March 2008, to elect the 9th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain . All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 264 seats in the Senate . After four years of growing bipolarisation of Spanish politics,
182-413: A snap election , provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no state of emergency was in force and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since the previous one. Additionally, both chambers were to be dissolved and a new election called if an investiture process failed to elect a prime minister within a two-month period from the first ballot. Barred this exception, there
273-619: A "left turn" in the PSOE political program for the General Election of October 1982. González answered advising him to abandon his conservative (traditional for PSOE [leftist]) viewpoint. In 1986, he was elected to represent the province of León in the Cortes (Parliament), becoming its youngest member after the election held on 20 June. He was number two on the PSOE list for León . In the following elections (those held in 1989, 1993, 1996 and 2000) he
364-435: A coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested
455-536: A decade of growth. The Spanish Cortes Generales were envisaged as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies had greater legislative power than the Senate , having the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a prime minister and to override Senate vetoes by an absolute majority of votes. Nonetheless, the Senate possessed a few exclusive (yet limited in number) functions—such as its role in constitutional amendment —which were not subject to
546-520: A lawyer, and María de la Purificación Zapatero Valero ( Tordehumos , Valladolid , 1927 – Madrid , 30 October 2000). He grew up in León , where his family originated. His paternal grandfather, Juan Rodríguez y Lozano (28 July 1893 – Puente Castro , León , 18 August 1936), had been a captain in the Spanish Republican Army ; he was executed by Francisco Franco 's Nationalist forces a month into
637-510: A majority of German states , in French communes with under 1,000 inhabitants, and in Czech municipal elections. Some ways to operate an open list system when using traditional paper-based voting are as follows: Some of these states may use other systems in addition to an open list, for example first-past-the-post in individual constituencies. Some countries use open list may only be used in one of
728-548: A new faction within the party called Nueva Vía (New Way) in April 2000, to serve him as a platform to become Secretary General. The name of Nueva Vía was a mix of Tony Blair 's Third Way ( tercera vía in Spanish) and Gerhard Schröder 's Neue Mitte ( new center or nuevo centro in Spanish). On 25 June 2000 Zapatero officially announced his intention to run for the federal Secretaryship General at an Extraordinary Conference of
819-411: A party's candidates achieve this quota than the total seats won by the party. It should therefore be made clear in advance whether list ranking or absolute votes take precedence in that case. The quota for individuals is usually specified either as a percentage of the party list quota, or as a percentage of the total votes received by the party. Example: The quota is 1000 votes and the open list threshold
910-565: A real radicalization of the society took (and is taking) place . Zapatero's supporters blame his opponents for that and the People's Party blames him stating facts such as the increase in the acts of violence committed against them, especially in the months before and during the war in Iraq . As a result, a new term has become popular: guerracivilismo (made up of a combination of the Spanish for Civil War and
1001-481: A result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats: For the Senate, 208 seats were elected using an open list partial block voting system , with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties. In constituencies electing four seats, electors could vote for up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, for up to two candidates; and for one candidate in single-member districts. Each of
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#17328848216931092-435: A result, after being appointed Secretary General, he coined the term Calm Opposition ( Oposición Tranquila ) to refer to his opposition strategy. The Calm Opposition was supposedly based on an "open to dialogue", "soft", "constructive" attitude ( talante constructivo , coined as talante ) aimed not at damaging the government but at achieving the "best" for the people. (Zapatero has insisted on this point so many times that
1183-486: A single party vote and one preference votes each on the federal, state and electoral district level for their preferred candidates within that party. The thresholds for a candidate to move up the list are 7% of the candidate's party result on the federal level, 10% on the state level and 14% on the electoral district level. Candidates for the district level are listed on the ballot while voters need to write-in their preferred candidate on state and federal level. In Croatia ,
1274-572: A stronger left-wing ideology whereas the second was more pragmatic. The division became wider after the General Election of 1993, the last election won by the PSOE before José María Aznar 's victory in 1996, when the bad results exacerbated the internal conflicts. Zapatero never formally joined either of those two groups. In 1993, the Socialist Federation of León (FSL – Federación Socialista de León) suffered an important scandal. Some towns experienced unusually sharp increases in PSOE membership in
1365-462: A teaching assistant by the University of León and in his keeping the job until 1991. The suspicions of political favoritism were due to his having been directly appointed without a prior selection process open to other candidates. On 20 May 1994, he held a press conference where he rejected these accusations. Zapatero attributed to "ignorance" or "bad faith" the content of the articles and linked them to
1456-524: A university student and a teaching assistant, Zapatero did not fulfill the compulsory military service. As an MP he was finally exempted. Zapatero attended his first political rally, organized by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in Gijón in 1976. Some political parties had been legal since 21 July 1976, but the PSOE was not legalized until February 1977. The speech of Felipe González ,
1547-510: A very important significance for him. He further explained that the Spanish left needed to modernize and that "we are finding it difficult to accept the need for the Socialist Party to change many of its ideological parameters and overcome our own conservatism". In 1988 he became Secretary General in León after a complex internal fight for power that ended a long period of division. In fact, before
1638-506: A very short period of time. When some of the supposed new members were questioned by the press, they stated that they were unaware of their membership and that they did not live in the places where they were being registered by the party. It seems that some opponents of Zapatero in León, perhaps with the support of powerful Guerristas at the top of the Spanish Socialist Party wanted to increase their influence within it by increasing
1729-597: A week without pay until 1991). It was subsequently found that he had been appointed by his department without the usual selection process involving interviews and competitive examinations, which if true, constitutes a case of political favouritism. He has declared that the only activity that attracts him besides politics is teaching or, at most, academic research. Rodríguez Zapatero met Sonsoles Espinosa in León in 1981. They married on 27 January 1990 and have two daughters named Laura (b. 1993) and Alba (b. 1995). Having received successive deferments because of his conditions as
1820-475: Is an agnostic. He studied law at the University of León , graduating in 1982. His performance as a student was above average before his pre-University year. According to his brother Juan: "He didn't study much but it made no difference, he continued successfully". After graduating, Zapatero worked as a teaching assistant in constitutional law at the University of León until 1986 (he continued working some hours
1911-404: Is essential.) Bono was deeply disliked by the guerristas , who also favoured Zapatero. Zapatero finally won by a relatively small margin (he obtained 414 votes out of 995 and José Bono obtained 405) on 22 July 2000. The margin was relatively small because Bono had no likelihood of winning since the supporters of the other two candidates preferred Zapatero as their second choice. Zapatero accepted
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#17328848216932002-454: Is one where a candidate must reach a full electoral quota of votes on their own to be assured of winning a seat. The total number of seats won by the party minus the number of its candidates that achieved this quota gives the number of unfilled seats. These are then successively allocated to the party's not-yet-elected candidates who were ranked highest on the party list. Iceland: In both parliamentary and municipal elections, voters may alter
2093-399: Is possible, although the parties urge their voters to support the party's prime candidate, to protect them from being beaten by someone ranked lower by the party. The share of voters using the open list option at 2022 Swedish general election was 22.49%. The most-open list , fully-open list, or simply open list system is one where the number of votes for each candidate fully determines
2184-408: Is specified as 25% of the quota, i.e. 250 votes. Therefore, a party which received 5000 votes wins five seats, which are awarded to its list candidates as follows: Candidates #1, #7 and #4 have each achieved 25% of the quota (250 preference votes or more). They get the first three of the five seats the party has won. The other two seats will be taken by #2 and #3, the two highest remaining positions on
2275-616: The -ismo suffix , equivalent to the English "-ism"), which would refer to the growing enmity of right and left-wing factions. Zapatero's criticisms of the government were very active from the beginning, blaming the government for its inability to control the rise in the price of fossil fuel and asking for a reduction in the corresponding taxes. In 2000, the British nuclear submarine HMS Tireless arrived at Gibraltar harbour to have its nuclear reactor repaired. Aznar affirmed that there
2366-517: The Communist Party as it was the only party really organized before Francisco Franco 's death in 1975. But, after the famous political rally in Gijón, they, and especially Zapatero, started to believe that the Socialist Party was the most probable future for the Spanish left . At that time the Socialist Party was rebuilding its infrastructure in the province of León after having been outlawed following
2457-673: The Cortes Generales —the Congress and the Senate—expired four years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the date of expiry of parliament and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE), with election day taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication. The previous election
2548-553: The Spanish Civil War , for refusing to fight with them. His whereabouts were revealed by fascists in Valladolid. His maternal grandfather, Faustino Valentín Zapatero Ballesteros ( Valladolid , 14 February 1899 – 1978), was a paediatrician and middle class liberal. His maternal grandmother María de la Natividad Valero y Asensio ( Zamora , 9 December 1902 – Valladolid, 28 June 2006) was a conservative and died at age 103. Zapatero
2639-549: The Spanish Civil War . In 1977, the year of the first democratic elections after Franco's death, Zapatero supported both the Communist and Socialist parties. He pasted posters of both parties. He eventually joined the PSOE on 23 February 1979. The impression Felipe González had caused on him in 1976 played a fundamental role in his decision to join the party. In 1979, during the Congreso Extraordinario del PSOE (1979) ,
2730-455: The Supreme Being . In the sixth, Zapatero's grandfather asked his family to clear his name in the future as his creed consisted only in his "love for peace, for good and for improving the living conditions of the lower classes". According to an Israeli newspaper, Maariv , by Zapatero's own statement: "My family, named Zapatero, is of Jewish descent", probably from a family of Marranos . He
2821-423: The provinces of Spain , with each being allocated an initial minimum of two seats and the remaining 248 being distributed in proportion to their populations. Ceuta and Melilla were allocated the two remaining seats, which were elected using plurality voting . The use of the electoral method resulted in an effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies. As
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2912-463: The reformers . Rosa Díez was a Basque politician who was a kind of intermediate option at the time. Zapatero was a dark horse who had against him his inexperience and in favour his image of reform and being the only MP among the candidates. (All the Spanish opposition leaders had been MPs before winning the elections. A very important factor in Spanish politics where electoral campaigns last for only 15 days and to be widely known long before they begin
3003-663: The 47 peninsular provinces was allocated four seats, whereas for insular provinces, such as the Balearic and Canary Islands , districts were the islands themselves, with the larger— Majorca , Gran Canaria and Tenerife —being allocated three seats each, and the smaller— Menorca , Ibiza – Formentera , Fuerteventura , La Gomera , El Hierro , Lanzarote and La Palma —one each. Ceuta and Melilla elected two seats each. Additionally, autonomous communities could appoint at least one senator each and were entitled to one additional senator per each million inhabitants. The term of each chamber of
3094-517: The Congress' override. Voting for the Cortes Generales was on the basis of universal suffrage , which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights. For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation , with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to
3185-739: The European Parliament, the procedure is identical but each voter is only allowed 2 preference votes. In Indonesia , any candidate who has obtained at least 30% of the quota is automatically elected. In the Netherlands , the voter can give their vote to any candidate in a list (for example, in elections for the House of the Representatives ); the vote for this candidate is called a "preference vote" ( voorkeurstem in Dutch). Candidates with at least 25% of
3276-408: The PSOE had renounced Marxism as its ideological base. He said nothing about joining the party at home, because he was afraid his parents would discourage him, considering him too young to join a political party. In 1982, Zapatero became head of the socialist youth organization in the province of León . In July 1982, he met Felipe González at the summer school "Jaime Vera" and suggested that he make
3367-547: The PSOE leader and future Prime Minister of Spain , who took part in the rally, exerted an important influence on Zapatero. He said, among other things, that "the Socialists' goal was the seizure of power by the working class to transform the ownership of the means of production " and that "the PSOE was a revolutionary party but not revolutionarist or aventurist [...], as it defended the use of elections to come to power". Zapatero and his family had been traditionally attracted to
3458-572: The Prime Minister and socialist candidate's habit of tending to pronounce words ending with D as if they ended with Z. The campaign was linked to terms like equality ( Igualdad-Igualdaz ) or solidarity ( Solidaridad-Solidaridaz ), emphasizing the policies carried out by the current government. The second phase was done under the slogan "La Mirada Positiva" (The Positive outlook), emphasising the future government platform, and "Vota con todas tus fuerzas" (Vote with all of your strength), aiming to mobilize
3549-454: The Socialist Party of León. Pasqual Maragall was the only regional leader of the Socialist Party who officially supported him before the Conference was held. Josep Borrell also decided to support him. Zapatero ran against three other opponents ( José Bono , Rosa Díez and Matilde Fernández ). Matilde Fernández was the candidate of the guerristas while José Bono was the candidate of
3640-513: The South East of Spain, one of the richest agricultural regions in the world. The scheme had received support from, among others, 80% of the affected farmers and the Socialist regional governments of regions such as Extremadura , Andalusia or Castilla-La Mancha . Some Socialist politicians also supported it when they were members of the former Socialist government back in the 90s (e.g. José Borrell ,
3731-557: The Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. They were made equal to those of the professional military. The initiative was defended by him in the name of the Parliamentary Socialist Group, proponent of the amendment. On 12 March 2000, the PSOE had lost its second successive election to José María Aznar's People's Party . Zapatero held his seat, but the Socialist Party obtained only 125 seats, 16 fewer than in 1996. The defeat
2008 Spanish general election - Misplaced Pages Continue
3822-571: The Valencian Country (EVEE). Unity for the Isles , an electoral alliance based in the Balearic Islands, was formed by PSM–Nationalist Agreement (PSM–EN), Majorcan Union (UM), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), Agreement for Majorca (ExM) and The Greens of Menorca (EV–Me). The key dates are listed below (all times are CET . The Canary Islands used WET ( UTC+0 ) instead): Although
3913-495: The affected parties (the proponents of the scheme answered back that there was no risk of a serious environmental damage and that in 2003, 14 times more water reached the sea than what was needed annually). The scheme, finally approved by the Government, was canceled by Zapatero soon after becoming prime minister. Zapatero was the main proponent of the "Pacto de las Libertades contra el Terrorismo" ("Anti Terrorist Freedom pact) which
4004-641: The cancellation of a run-off between himself and Bono because he was sure of his victory after only one ballot and he apparently did not want to humiliate his adversary. After becoming Secretary General, he was congratulated by the French PM Lionel Jospin , by the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and by José María Aznar. He moved to Madrid with his family that year. As a Congressman he had lived from Monday to Thursday in Madrid and
4095-400: The chambers of the legislature. Types of open list systems used in the lower house of the national legislature. 14% on the district level (among votes for the candidates party) 10% on the regional (state) level (among votes for the candidates party) (25% of the quota to override the default party-list) (up to 3 preference votes) (per constituency) (5% of the party vote to override
4186-508: The current leader of the European Spanish Socialist Group and former president of the European Parliament. The scheme was mainly opposed by Zapatero, environmentalist groups, the Socialist regional government of Aragon and some of the citizens of the areas from which water was to be transferred. The main criticisms of the scheme were the supposed damage to the environment and an argued real lack of sufficient water for all of
4277-454: The election saw a record result for both ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and opposition People's Party (PP), together obtaining more than 83% of the vote share—over 21 million votes—and 92% of the Congress seats. The PSOE under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero benefitted from tactical voting against the PP and emerged as the most-voted party just 7 seats short of an overall majority. On
4368-911: The election who was strongly opposed to Basque nationalism and to ETA , resigned after some internal clashes, resigning his seat in the Basque parliament and in the Federal Executive. He was replaced by Patxi López , elected on 24 March 2002. López had actively supported Zapatero during his campaign to become Secretary General. Open list Condorcet methods Positional voting Cardinal voting Quota-remainder methods Approval-based committees Fractional social choice Semi-proportional representation By ballot type Pathological response Strategic voting Paradoxes of majority rule Positive results Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on
4459-589: The election: In the Canary Islands, an alliance was formed between New Canaries (NC) and Nationalist Canarian Centre (CCN), two splinter groups from Canarian Coalition . In the Valencian Community, Valencian People's Initiative (IdPV)—splinter from United Left of the Valencian Country (EUPV)—joined a coalition with the Valencian Nationalist Bloc (Bloc) and The Greens–Ecologist Left of
4550-556: The electrical protocol proposed by the government (initially negative for the important coal sector of León), being the PSOE spokesman in the Commission of Public Administration and probably his most important success as an MP: the passing of an amendment to the national budget of 2000 in November 1999 that increased the pensions of the non-professional soldiers who fought for the Republic during
4641-463: The government and the opposition were the proposed reforms affecting the education system. The People's Party first introduced the so-called LOU, a law to change the university system, and later the LOCE ( Organic Act for Education Quality ), which affected secondary education. Zapatero strongly opposed both. The People's Party used its absolute majority in the Cortes to pass its reforms. A regional election
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#17328848216934732-425: The government would have benefitted from calling an earlier election. In addition to those factors both the PP and the PSOE made competing proposals on taxation. Jos%C3%A9 Luis Rodr%C3%ADguez Zapatero José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero ( Spanish: [xoseˈlwis roˈðɾiɣeθ θapaˈteɾo] ; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He
4823-584: The idea of an Alliance of Civilizations ; the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Spain ; reform of abortion law ; a peace negotiation attempt with ETA ; the end of ETA terrorism; increase of tobacco restrictions; and the reform of various autonomous statutes , particularly the Statute of Catalonia . José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was born in Valladolid , Castile and León, to Juan Rodríguez y García-Lozano (born 1928),
4914-415: The ideas of republican political philosopher Philip Pettit . In an interview with El Mundo , Zapatero linked civic republicanism's focus on civic virtue to tolerance of individual autonomy and expanding political participation. During Zapatero's years as an opposition leader (and later as prime minister), the tension between left-wing and right-wing supporters increased and, according to some opinions,
5005-430: The indecisive or potentially abstaining voters. Another common slogan through all the campaign was "Motivos para creer" (Reasons to believe in). For the pre-campaign the PP used the slogan "Con Rajoy es Posible" (With Rajoy it's Possible). Usually emphasizing PP's campaign proposals, such as "Llegar a fin de mes, Con Rajoy es Posible" (Making ends meet, With Rajoy it's Possible). IU accused PP of copying its slogan from
5096-512: The internal fight for the job of Secretary General of the Regional Chapter. In 1994, three regional conferences were held: All of them were finally won by Zapatero or his supporters. The National Conference (held after most of the representatives elected in the first León Conference were Zapatero's supporters) was won by the reformers , at that time strongly opposed to the Guerristas . That
5187-418: The last municipal elections IU chose the pre-campaign slogan "LlamazarES + Más Izquierda" (LlamazarES (is) More Left), calling attention to their position as the third national party. The economy became a major campaign issue due to a number of factors: The sudden emergence of the economy as a political issue came after several years of steady economic growth, and led some observers to suggest that maybe
5278-490: The list. If a candidate gathers enough preference votes, then they get a seat in parliament, even if their position on the list would leave them without a seat. In the 2003 elections Hilbrand Nawijn , the former minister of migration and integration, was elected into parliament for the Pim Fortuyn List by preference votes even though he was the last candidate on the list . In Slovakia , each voter may, in addition to
5369-472: The massive tactical voting towards the PSOE, falling to historical lows of popular support. Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD), with 1 seat and slightly more than 300,000 votes, became the first nationwide party aside from PSOE, PP and IU entering in parliament in over two decades. Zapatero was sworn in as Prime Minister of Spain for a second term in office in April 2008, just as the Spanish economy began showing signs of fatigue and economic slowdown after
5460-419: The mayoralty of León and two seats in the regional parliament of Castilla-León. The results were influenced by the bad economic situation and the cases of corruption assailing the party. Zapatero had personally directed the electoral campaign. In 1996, after the General Election, Zapatero kept his seat at the Congress of Deputies. The following year, Zapatero was again elected Secretary General of León and after
5551-553: The national conference held by the party that year he entered the National Executive (the party's governing body). The Association of Parliamentary Journalists awarded to Zapatero the "Diputado Revelación" prize (something like Most promising MP of the year ) in December 1999 for his activities as a member of the Congress of Deputies . From 1996 until 2000, his most conspicuous contributions as an MP were his vigorous opposition to
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#17328848216935642-650: The number of members in the towns of León favorable to them. Their main aim would have been to take control of the Regional Socialist Section of Castilla y León in the conference to be held in 1994. Zapatero's support for the then Regional Secretary General, Jesús Quijano transformed him into the enemy of the Guerristas in the region as the FSL is the most important Provincial Section. In May 1994 two papers, El País and Diario de León , published several articles that suggested irregularities in his appointment as
5733-408: The official electoral campaign period in Spain only lasts for the 15 days before the election, (with the exception of the day just before the election), many parties, especially the PP and PSOE, start their "pre-campaigns" months in advance, often before having finalised their electoral lists. The first phase campaign was done under the slogan "Con Z de Zapatero" (With Z of Zapatero), a joke based on
5824-410: The order in which a party 's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list , in which party lists are in a predetermined, fixed order by the time of the election and gives the general voter no influence at all on the position of the candidates placed on the party list . An open list system allows voters to select individuals rather than, or in addition to parties. Different systems give
5915-525: The order of election. This system is used in all Finnish , Latvian , and Brazilian multiple-seat elections. Since 2001, lists of this "most open" type have also been used in the elections to fill the 96 proportional seats in the 242-member upper house of Japan . A "free list", more usually called panachage or mixed list, is a variant on the most open list where voters may support candidates on different lists. Candidates are typically elected using either cumulative or block plurality voting. This gives
6006-567: The order of the party list or strike candidates from the list completely. How many votes need to be altered in this way to have an effect on the results varies by the number of seats won by the party in the constituency or municipality in question and the candidate's place on the list. In the parliamentary elections of 2007 and 2009 , voters altered the party lists enough to change the ranking of candidates within party lists. However, this did not affect which candidates ultimately got elected to parliament. Norway: In parliamentary elections, 50% of
6097-477: The original list order are much more common. Parties usually allow candidates to ask for preference votes, but without campaigning negatively against other candidates on the list. The members of the National Council are elected by open list proportional representation in nine multi-member constituencies based on the states (with varying in size from 7 to 36 seats) and 39 districts. Voters are able to cast
6188-409: The other hand, Mariano Rajoy 's PP saw an increase in its vote share and seat count but remained unable to overtake the Socialists. United Left (IU) had its worst general election performance ever with less than 4% and 2 seats. Regional nationalist parties Convergence and Union (CiU), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) or Aragonese Union (CHA) were also hurt by
6279-462: The party list. This means that #5 is not elected even though being the fifth on the list and having more preference votes than #2. In practice, with such a strict threshold, only very few candidates succeed to precede on their lists as the required number of votes is huge. Where the threshold is lower (e.g. in Czech parliamentary elections, 5% of the total party vote is the required minimum), results defying
6370-648: The party, select one to four candidates from the ordered party list. Candidates who are selected by more than 3% of the party's voters are elected (in order of total number of votes) first and only then is the party ordering used. For European elections, voters select two candidates and the candidates must have more than 10% of the total votes to override the party list. In the European election in 2009 three of Slovakia's thirteen MEPs were elected solely by virtue of preference votes (having party-list positions too low to have won otherwise) and only one ( Katarína Neveďalová of SMER)
6461-457: The provincial conference held that year, Ramón Rubial , then national president of the PSOE, had asked the party in León to foster unity. Zapatero was elected as Secretary General at that conference, leading to a period of stability. In the 1980s and 1990s, the PSOE consisted of two factions: the Guerristas (supporters of Alfonso Guerra , former vice-president under Felipe González) and the reformers (led by Felipe González). The first group had
6552-530: The publication of the dissolution decree in the BOE, setting the election date for 9 March and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 1 April. The tables below show the composition of the parliamentary groups in both chambers at the time of dissolution. The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry , coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form
6643-409: The quota takes priority over the party's other candidates who stand higher on the party list but received fewer preference votes. Most people vote for the top candidate , to indicate no special preference for any individual candidate, but support for the party in general. Sometimes, however, people want to express their support for a particular person. Many women, for example, vote for the first woman on
6734-463: The rest of the time in León. This was the period when Zapatero was appointed as Secretary General of the PSOE in 2000 until he became Prime Minister of Spain on 14 April 2004. Zapatero has always claimed to base his political activity on his love of dialogue. When he was an opposition leader, he liked to contrast his behaviour with the "arrogant", "authoritarian" approach of the People's Party and, especially, that of its leader José María Aznar. As
6825-521: The term talante has become very popular in Spain.) Because of this supposed tactic, Zapatero received nicknames like Bambi or Sosoman (where Soso , meaning "dull, insipid, bore", replaces Super in Superman ), especially in the first months after being appointed General Secretary. After his election to the leadership of the PSOE, Zapatero spoke about the influence of the political philosophy of civic republicanism on him in general, and in particular
6916-407: The voter can give their vote to a single candidate on the list, but only candidates who have received at least 10% of the party's votes take precedence over the other candidates on the list. In Czech parliamentary elections, voters are given 4 preference votes. Only candidates who have received more than 5% of preferential votes at the regional level take precedence over the list. For elections to
7007-536: The voter different amounts of influence to change the default ranking. The voter's candidate choices are usually called preference vote ; the voters are usually allowed one or more preference votes for the open list candidates. Open lists differ from mixed-member proportional representation , also known as "personalized proportional representation" in Germany. Some mixed systems , however, may use open lists in their list-PR component. A "relatively closed" open list system
7098-615: The voters full control over which candidates are elected, not just within a particular party, but even across them. As a result, independents are not forced to support candidates of only one party, and can support candidates across multiple lists, while still ensuring the results are ultimately proportional. It is used in elections at all levels in Liechtenstein , Luxembourg , and Switzerland , in congressional elections in Ecuador , El Salvador , and Honduras , as well as in local elections in
7189-404: The voters need to vote for a candidate in order to change the order of the party list, meaning that, in practice, it is almost impossible for voters to change the result and it is de facto a closed list system. In county elections there is a threshold of 8%. In a "more open" list system, the quota for election could be lowered from the above amount. It is then (theoretically) possible that more of
7280-415: Was also kept alive by a last will , handwritten 24 hours before facing the firing squad, and which can be considered a final declaration of principles. The will comprised six parts, the first three bestowing his possessions on his heirs; the fourth, in which he asked for a civil burial and, the fifth, in which he requested his family to forgive those who had tried and executed him and proclaiming his belief in
7371-639: Was born in Valladolid not only because of his mother's attachment to her family, who lived there, but also because of the medical profession of her father. Zapatero has said that, as a youngster, "as I remember it, I used to participate in late night conversations with my father and brother about politics, law or literature". However, he did not get along very well with his father at times. Sources say that his father refused to let him work or take any part in his law firm, and this scarred him for life. He says that his family taught him to be tolerant, thoughtful, prudent and austere. The memory of Zapatero's grandfather
7462-416: Was elected solely by virtue of her position on the party list (having fewer preference votes than a number of other candidates who themselves, nevertheless had preferences from fewer than 10 percent of their party's voters). In Sweden , a person needs to receive 5% of the party's votes for the personal vote to overrule the ordering on the party list. Voting without expressing a preference between individuals
7553-472: Was especially bitter as the People's Party unexpectedly obtained an absolute majority for the first time and the socialist result was worse than in the previous election. Almunia announced his resignation on the very day the General Election took place. Zapatero decided to run for the leadership of the Socialist Party in its 35th Conference to be held in June that year. Together with other socialist members, he founded
7644-535: Was held in the Basque Country on 13 May 2001. The socialists received 17.8% of the vote (against 17.6% in the previous 1998 elections) but lost one seat. Both, the Socialist Party and the People's Party had formed an alliance against the then ruling nationalist Basque political movements but the latter won again. The results were considered a failure. Nicolás Redondo Terreros , the Basque Socialist leader during
7735-481: Was held on 14 March 2004, which meant that the legislature's term would expire on 14 March 2008. The election decree was required to be published in the BOE no later than 19 February 2008, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible election date for the Cortes Generales on Sunday, 13 April 2008. The prime minister had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call
7826-601: Was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections for the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of 2024 there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution. In November 2007, it was announced by Andalusian president Manuel Chaves that he had agreed with Zapatero to hold the regional election in Andalusia simultaneously with the 2008 Spanish general election in March. The Cortes Generales were officially dissolved on 15 January 2008 after
7917-504: Was no risk for the population but Zapatero criticized him for his inability to force the British government to take the submarine to another harbour. After almost one year, the Tireless was repaired and left Gibraltar without having caused any known problems. Another point of friction came from the scheme to transfer water from the River Ebro to other areas, especially the irrigated areas in
8008-403: Was number one on the list. In the elections of 2004 he ran for Madrid as number one. Zapatero defined himself as a "left-wing conservative" at the time. He explained that he meant that, for sentimental reasons linked to his family, he came from the left that lost the Spanish Civil War and that what had happened between 1936 and 1939 (the duration of the war) and 1939–1975 ( Franco 's regime) had
8099-467: Was positive for Zapatero as the list of bogus party members was revised again. Their number grew from 577 to almost 900. Zapatero was finally reelected secretary general with 68% of the ballots in the 7th Regional Conference held in July 1994, following the removal of the false memberships. In 1995, new regional and local elections were held. The results were bad for the PSOE in León as they lost four seats in
8190-448: Was signed on 8 December 2000. At the end of the year, the Mad Cow disease came back into the spotlight after its outbreak in 1996. Zapatero repeatedly criticized the Government's management of the crisis arguing that it was out of control. As of March 2005, the disease had caused dozens of deaths all over Europe, though none in Spain. In 2001 one of the biggest points of friction between
8281-569: Was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On 2 April 2011 he announced he would not stand for re-election in the 2011 general election and left office on 21 December 2011. Among the main actions taken by the Zapatero administration were the withdrawal of Spanish troops from the Iraq war , the increase of Spanish troops in Afghanistan ;
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