Spanish government looks beyond Bush to improve relations with US

Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs rules out US visit while Bush still in power

Following a meeting with the US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, in Washington Houston, Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs has ruled out any meeting between Zapatero and George Bush at the White House.

The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs emphasised that the Spanish government was now looking at building a new relationship with the next US president following the general elections due to be held in November this year.

Moratinos met with officials running the leadership campaigns for all the White House hopefuls - John McCain, Barack Obama all Hillary Clinton and confirmed that all of them want to have better relations with Spain.

During the meeting with Rice, Moratinos underlined the will of the Spanish government to work very closely with the US in areas of mutual interest such as the Middle East and Latin America. Moratinos said that Rice had expressed her hope over the possibility of a peace agreement being reached between Israel and Palestine. Moratinos underlined that he had seen goodwill on both sides to reach an agreement before the end of 2008 following his recent trip to Israel and Egypt.

Moratinos and Rice also talked about the situation in Lebanon where Spain has deployed 1,100 soldiers along with other NATO peacekeeping forces. The expansion of NATO to include Georgia and the Ukraine was also a topic of conversation.
The two also spoke about Cuba, an area of contention between both contries. While the Spanish government favours dialogue with Cuba the US refuses to establish any diplomatic relations with the Cuban government until democratic elections are held.

The Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister told Rice that Spain wants to build a new relationship with the US and said that Madrid was an ally, partner and friend of the US.

Ministers in the Spanish Government

This weekend José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero named his Cabinet and there were a few surprises. This is the first government in Spanish history to have more women ministers than men. Another first is that a woman has been appointed to head the Defence Ministery. Seven-months pregnant Carme Chacon was Minister of Housing during the last legislature and she told reporters it was an honour to have been made Minister of Defence in this one. She defines herself as a pacifist and her appointment is bound to have raised a few eyebrows among the Spanish military.

Zapatero said the new cabinet reflected the nature and objectives of his government and he also announced the creation of an Equality Ministry aimed at furthering women's rights in Spain and fighting domestic violence. This is a break down of the new Spanish Government

María Teresa Fernández de la Vega – First Vice-president and Presidency
First Vice-president and Minister of the Presidency. Spokesperson for the government during the last legislature. She has occupied various positions within the Justice Ministry; Secretary of State for Justice (1994); Magistrate (1989). She has also been a member of parliament in various legislatures.

Pedro Solbes – Second Vice-president and Economy and Treasury
The Second Vice-president and Minister for the Economy during the last legislature. Delegate for Economic and Monetary Affairs for the European Commission (1999-2004). Minister for the Economy (1993-1996); Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1991-1993). Member of parliament in various legislatures

Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba – Home office Minister
During the last legislature he took over as Minster for the Home Office in April 2006. Before occupying this post he was both the Spokesperson for and President of the Socialist group in parliament. During Felipe González’s last government (1993-1996) he was Minister of the Presidency. Previously he occupied several other distinct positions within the government: Secretary of State for Universities, Secretary of State for Communication and Minister for Education and Science (1992). Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Complutense University of Madrid.

Elena Salgado – Public Administration Minister
During the last legislature she was the Minister for Health (until April 2006). Later on she went on to occupy the portfolio of Public Administration. She occupied various positions within the governments of Felipe Gonzalez: General Secretary for Communication for the Ministry of Public Works (1991-1996). From 1996 to 2004 she worked in several companies within the private sector.

Carme Chacón - Defence Minister
During the last legislature she took over from Trujillo as Minister for Housing in April 2006. In 1999 she was chosen as a councillor for the town hall of Esplugues de Llobregat and became the deputy mayor. She was a member of parliament in 2000 and 2004. She is a Professor of Constitutional Law in the University of Gerona.

Celestino Corbacho – Work and Immigration Minister
Involved in local politics since 1983 in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and mayor of this locality since 1994. Regional councillor for Barcelona and president for the regional government of this area since 2004.

Mariano Fernández Bermejo - Justice Minister
He substituted López Aguilar in the Ministry of Justice in 2007. A lot of experience working in public prosecution. When PSOE took power in 2004 Bermejo was named the top Public Prosecutor in the High Court, the highest post within public prosecution. Previously he was in charge of public prosecution in Madrid from 1992 to 2003, a post which he left following his confrontations with the then Minister of Justice, Michavila. He was public prosecutor for the Supreme Court between 1989 and 1992. He also worked as an assessor in antiterrorist activities for the Ministry of Justice between 1986 and 1989. He has also worked as a public prosecutor in various courts.

Bernat Soria - Health Minister
Named as Minister for Health in April 2006. Until then he was the Director of the Andalucian Centre on Regenerative and Molecular Biology. He has spent a long time researching stem cells. Professor of Physiology in the Miguel Hernández University in Elche. He became the first president of the European Network for Stem Cell Research, created in 2004.

Miguel Ángel Moratinos – Foreign Affairs Minister
Minister for Cooperation and Foreign Affairs during the last legislature. European Union special ambassador for the peace process in the Middle East from 1996 to 2003. During the last 6 months of 1996 he was the Spanish Ambassador for Israel. Previously he was the General Director of Foreign Policy towards Africa and the Middle East, General Director for Cooperation in the Arab world as well as occupying various other posts within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Miguel Sebastián - Minister of Industry, Tourism and Commerce
Director of the Economics Office in Zapatero’s last government until October 2006 when he was designated as a candidate for mayor of Madrid. Following being defeated he gave up his post as councillor and returned to lecturing in the Complutense University in Madrid. He also worked as an advisor to Zapatero when PSOE was in opposition. Director of Study Services for the BBVA since 1999.

Mercedes Cabrera - Minister of Education, Social Affairs and the Family
Member of Parliament in the 8th and 9th legislature. Minister for Education from 2006 to 2008. She only entered the world of politics two years ago when PSOE placed her number in second place on the electoral lists for Madrid for the March 2004 elections. She has worked as Co-Director of the magazine History and Politics. Member of the governing board of the Pablo Iglesias Foundation. Cabrera collaborated with PSOE in 1998 in the commission responsible for the Socialist’s electoral programme for the 2000 general election. Following PSOE’s victory in the 2005 elections Cabrera was named as the President of the Commission on Education and Science in the Spanish parliament for which she had the support of all parliamentary groups except for the PP.

César Antonio Molina - Minister of Culture
Member of Parliament for Coruña for the 9th legislature. Minister for Culture between July 2007 and March 2008. Between May 2004 and July 2007 he was the director of the Cervantes Institute. Between 1996 and 2004 he was the director of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and between 1985 and 1996 he was in charge of the Cuture sections for the Cambio 16 and Diario 16 newspapers. Before this he was a professor in the Complutense University in Madrid. He has also worked in the faculty of Journalism and Humanities in the Carlos III University in Madrid. He has published more than 30 books including plays, prose and poetry many of which have been translated into different languages. His lastest book, El rumor del tiempo was published in 2006.

Elena Espinosa - Minister of Agriculture and the Environment
Member of Parliament for Orense in the 9th legislature. Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food between June 2004 and March 2008. From May 2002 until June 2004 assistant to the presidency of the Rodman group. Before joining the company she worked in the Galician Institute for Technical Medicine for two years. Between 1988 and 1996 she was the president of the Port authority in Vigo and between 1985 and 1988 she was responsible for the Urgent Reindustrialisation Zone of Vigo.

Cristina Garmendia – Research and Development Minister
President of the Spanish Association of Biocompanies (Asebio). In 2000 she founded Genetrix, a private company in the biotechnology sector. She is also president of the Inbiomed Foundation.

Magdalena Álvarez – Transport and Construction Minister
Member of parliament for Málaga in the 9th legislature. In the last government she was also the Minster for Transport and Construction (2004-2008). Member of parliament in the 8th legislature. Member of the Federal Committee of PSOE. Between 1994 and 2004 she was the advisor on the Economy and Treasury for the Regional Andalucian government. Previously she was a councillor for Malaga in the Andalucian parliament. She has been a professor of Economics in various educational institutions from 1977 to 1989. In 1979 she became a Financial Inspector for the State where she has occupied diverse posts in the Treasury Ministry and later on in the State Agency for Tax Administration. She was in charge of the Treasury in the local government of Malaga from 1987 to 1989, General Director of Regional Economic Incentives (1989 -1993) and Director of the Department of Tax and Financial Inspection for the State Agency on Tax Administration.

Bibiana Aido - Minister of Equality
The youngest minister in the Spanish government, 31-year old Aido was chosen as member of parliament for Cádiz in the 2008 elections. Secretary for Equality in the Executive Provincial Commission for PSOE in Cádiz. Until now she has been the Director of the Andalucian Agency for the Development of Flamenco. Between 2003 and 2006 she was the regional delegate for the Andalucian Advisory Board on Culture. Previously she has worked for the University of Cádiz, Unicaza, Iturri S.A. and Caja San Fernando.

Beatriz Corredor – Housing Minister
Until now she has been PSOE’s municipal spokesperson for Housing in the town hall of Madrid. She has been a property registrar since 1993 and before this she was the Director of the Property Register Studies Service for Castilla La Mancha between 2002 and 2006.

Young Spaniards reluctant to rent property

The Government’s new housing policy which aims at getting more young Spaniards to rent has come up against an unexpected pitfall – that those it is aiming to help reject the idea of renting.

The results of a government survey of young people between 20 and 30 years old showed that renting is not at all popular in Spain. More than half of those questioned expressed their desire to buy their own property despite government help towards renting. In fact around 60% said that the price of renting and monthly mortgage payments were quite similar and therefore opted in favour of buying property whenever possible.

These findings underline the fact that Spain tends to be a country of house buyers rather than renters. The European average for tenants living in rented accommodation is 38% but in Spain this figure drops to just 11%. The Ministry for Housing has acknowledged that in order to reverse this trend, renting needs to be not only cheaper but they also need to convince the young that it is an attractive option.

The results of the survey published yesterday indicated that the 1000 young people questioned would not be interested in renting, even if conditions were to become more favourable. Among some of the reasons they cited against renting were the bad state of rental accommodation, lack of guarantees for continuing a lease and the high deposit or bank guarantee required in order to be able to sign a rental contract.

When those questioned what price they would be happy to pay for renting a flat they said 350 euros with a maximum of 475 euros. However, in reality most rental contracts for flats of 100 square metres cost around 720 euros a month, rising to an average of in places like Madrid or Barcelona.

As far as economic help is concerned most people said that there should be more help towards buying rather than renting. A government spokesperson has said that more information is to become available about economic incentives available to help towards the cost of renting.

See: Renting property in Spain

New payment for mothers of newly born children

As from this week parents in Spain can apply for 2500 euros per child born since 3rd July

Applications opened yesterday for the new payment of 2,500 euros to be paid by the Spanish state to mothers for each child born since 3rd July. Applications can be made in local tax offices or by internet by going to the website for the Ministry of Work, Finance and Economics. A free telephone information service will also soon be available.

Last Friday the Spanish cabinet approved a bill for the new law which gives 2,500 euros to mothers for each child born. The bill was passed to parliament for processing. It is expected to become law as from next December.

The new law allows for a one off payment of 2.500 euros to be made to mothers for children born since 0.00 hours on 3rd July 2007, the date on which the Spanish president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, announced the new measure. The payment will be made to mothers who have legal residence in Spain and in the case of foreign residentes, those who have been living legally in Spain for at least 2 years.

It is expected that the bill will become law in November and the government hopes that the first payments will be made the following month in December.

Related: Child maintenance in Spain

Equality of sexes in Spain

Spanish Congress passes new equality laws

The Spanish parliament passed the Law on Equality between men and women yesterday. This new law gives fathers the right to 15 days paternity leave and equality between men and women on electoral lists which according to Zapatero, the Spanish president will radically transform society for ever.

The president took it upon himself to present the law on equality in the Spanish Congress today with the support of 192 members of parliament but with the notable abstention of the 119 PP members of parliament. When the law was passed there was a standing ovation by members of parliament and representatives of women’s groups that had been following the debate in the Congress.

The Law on Equality also forces companies with more than 250 employees to negotiate plans on equality within the workplace and for larger companies to incorporate 40% of women in their Board of Directors within 8 years.

It also gives parents the rights to reduce their working day from an eighth to half in order to look after children under eight years old. In the case of premature births, maternity leave starts when the baby leaves the hospital. Paternity leave will be extended from 15 days to one month within a timescale of 6 years.

One of the most controversial changes that the new law will bring about is to electoral lists. In districts of 5000 or more inhabitants political parties must have at least 40% of women for every 5 posts. From 2011 this measure will be applied to districts of 3000 or more inhabitants.

Susana Camarero, a member of PP, accused Zapatero of being an armchair feminist who does not listen to women (even though he is the only president in Spanish history to have an equal number of men and women ministers in his government). She said that this was a law for elites and that it did not address the needs of real people. She also said it was not very ambitious and that it would not be very effective.

Zapatero highlighted that the most important objective was to do justice to women. He dedicated the 15th March 2007 to Clara Campoamor, the member of parliament who defended women’s rights 75 years ago. According to Jesús Caldera, the Minister for Work and Social affairs this new law could come into effect next Monday.

Government to reclaim Spanish beaches

The policy to reclaim the beaches, which according to Spanish law are public domain, may mean the end of the popular beach bars in Andalucia

According to an article in El País this weekend, the Town Hall in Chipiona, Cadiz has decided that this summer will be the last for its 3 beach bars on playa Cruz del Mar. This decision is part of a plan to reinforce public rights to beaches on the Andalucian coast.

The Ministry for the Environment is considering recovering around 600,000 m2 of public space on the Andalucian coast, including 35,000 m2 in Cadiz province and 2,800 in Chipiona itself. Most of the recovered areas will be achieved in agreement with local town halls or by better planning of existing areas.

The 3 bars that the town hall is planning to pull down are el Playa Augusto, el Casa Reyes and el Muelle Casa Luis. The bar owners concerned are not happy at all. Furthermore no clear alternative for their businesses to continue have been offered yet. One possibility mentioned was for their bars to be placed somewhere off the sand near the beach. However, Diego Rodríguez, proprietor of Casa Luis said that everybody just wanted to stay where they were. He said that his bar had been there for 52 years. Casa Reyes, had also been there for a similar amount of time although the bar was pulled down in 1979 and a new one built at a cost of 240,000 euros.

The Director of Coastal Territory in Cadiz, Federico Fernández, has assured the bar owners that any final decision will be based on consensus. In addition he reminded those concerned that the Dirección General de Costas is a law which gives priority to public use of beaches along the whole of the Spanish coastline, and that each province had the right to enforce this law.

Related:
Guide to Cadiz
Guide to Malaga
Guide to Granada
Guide to Almeria

Secret CIA flights in Spain

Spanish government to declassify documents on secret CIA flights in Spain

The Vice-president María Teresa Fernández de la Vega has announced that all documents concerning illegal secret CIA flights in Spain held by the National Intelligence Centre will be declassified.

This announcement came following the request by the Spanish High Court. De la Vega said that it was essential for the executive to collaborate with the High Court even when if it meant revealing ‘official secrets’.

The illegal CIA flights refer to those flights which transported terrorist suspects to other countries for interrogation where respect for human rights is questionable.

The High Court judge who requested the information, Ismael Moreno, is investigating whether any of these flights made stops in Spanish airports. According to some sources the CIA flights made stops in Tenerife, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Málaga airports.

Spanish government tackles anorexia

The Ministry for Health and Fashion Companies agree on larger sizes in an effort to combat anorexia

The Minister for Health, Elena Salgado, has announced an agreement reached with Spain’s main fashion chains (el Corte Inglés, Mango, Cortefiel and Inditex…etc) for more homogeneity over clothes sizes. In addition, labels will contain information such as waist, hip and bust measurements. There will also be more effort to promote a healthy image of beauty with shop mannequins being made to a size 38 (UK size 10). As part of the agreement size 46 (UK size 16) is also to be included in the collections sold by the main fashion chains.

Salgado said that this initiative was aimed at providing consumers with more information and trying to achieve homogeneity in sizing between different fashion companies and manufacturers.

The National Institute for Consumers will be carrying out a study on 8,500 women, resident in Spain, between the ages of 12 and 70 who will be measured in order to find out what the average female body size is according to age. Participants will be given a fashion garment by way of payment.

The study will take place over the course of this year and will be financed by the National Institute for Consumers costing around a million euros. Special computerised cabins will be used to create 3 dimensional images of the women in the study, a technique that has already been successfully used in France.

Designers and fashion chains will have 18 months from the end of the study in order to implement the agreed changes to sizing and labelling. There will be a longer period of 5 years for companies to change their mannequins to a minimum of size 38.

Related:
Spanish fashion show rejects thinnest models

Spanish Justice Minister in Saudi womens rights incident

Ban on female journalists leads López Aguilar to cancel conference in Riad

The Justice minister, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, has cancelled attending a conference in an Islamic University in Riad, the capital of Saudi Arabia following the ban on 4 female journalists who were accompanying him.

The University of Imam in Riad used the fact that the University is male only as the justification not to allow the 4 journalists to attend the conference during the Justice minister’s trip to Saudi Arabia. Esther Bazán from Cadena Ser was one of the journalists affected by the ban.

In respect for Arabic tradition the journalists had gone totally covered up, dressed in black wearing head scarfs. However this was not enough for the University authorities according to Esther Bazán.

Sources from the Spanish Ministry of Justice said that it was unacceptable to participate in an act in which women were discriminated against.

The Saudi Ministry of Justice has tried to resolve the situation and in contrast with the university authorities the Spanish delegation, which included the 4 female journalists, has been respectfully received during the rest of their visit.

Related:
Women in Spain
Domestic violence and womens rights in Spain

Government calls for consensus in fight against ETA

The Vice President calls on the PP to support government policy against ETA

In a speech given in Marbella yesterday the Vice President, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, appealed to the PP (Spain’s main opposition party) to support government policy against ETA on Monday when president is due to appear before Congress.

This appeal comes just a day after thousands marched against ETA in Madrid and Bilbao, demonstrations which were not endorsed by the PP. All other political parties in Spain participated in the demonstrations.

De la Vega stated that the President’s appearance before congress would not include anything extreme that could not be supported by those who wanted to see an end to violence. She also stated that all democratic governments had tried to achieve a peaceful solution and not to do so would be irresponsible.

De la Vega spoke of the intolerable accusations that the PP had made against the government and asked how they could steep so low. She said that it was an insult to suggest that the government did not want to end terrorism against the state and that at no time had the Security or Justice departments lowered their guard.

She said that since May when Zapatero announced the government would be prepared to enter into dialogue with the terrorists the government had worked ceaselessly, responsibly and loyally in order to try and achieve peace. She also said that they had tried to gain the support of the PP because a united front against terrorism is much stronger. She said the government would continue trying to get the support of the PP in spite of the PP’s claims that the government was betraying the victims of terrorism and giving up Navarra.

De la Vega said that she was confident that the PP would support the government in parliament today and that it was a great occasion for all political parties to come together to show their opposition to ETA. She asked for the PP to stop creating divisions in this respect.

At the end of her speech De la Vega said that the Government felt proud of the solidarity shown in the demonstrations against terrorism on Saturday in Bilbao and Madrid. She concluded that if everybody united then peace could be achieved.

Changes in state funding of Church

The Spanish government and Catholic Church agree on new funding system

The Socialist government in Spain and the Catholic Church have signed an agreement centering around the traditional system of state funding of Church activities. Up until now, the Spanish Catholic Church has had two main sources of public finance: firstly an annual allowance given to the Church by the Government, and secondly voluntary donations paid by Spaniards in their yearly tax declarations and then passed on to the Church by the Tax Office.

However according to an announcement made today by Spain's Vice President, the State will no longer have to pay an annual allowance to the Church. To compensate, the voluntary donation of taxable earnings has gone up from 0.52 percent to 0.7. This means that tax payers can pay 0.7 percent of their income tax to the Church rather than to the Tax Office. Church representatives present in the negotiations with the Government had asked for 0.8 percent.

Another change in the previously privileged position of the Catholic Church is that from now on it will have to pay VAT on the purchase of all goods and properties. It will also have to present to the Government each year a financial report detailing how the money received from the Tax Office has been spent.

The Government claims the new agreement will make the system more transparent and, according to its Vice-president, hopes that it represents the first step towards its ultimate objective: a Spanish Catholic Church capable of financing its own activities without relying on state funds. The system comes into effect at the beginning of next year.

Related:
Spanish Catholic Church in condom crisis
Spain's Catholic Church campaigns against Government
Priest celibacy in Spain
Pope receives Zapatero in the Vatican
Spain legalises gay marriage

Spain, UK and Gibraltar sign agreement

Spain, the UK and Gibraltar sign an agreement involving joint use of Gibraltar's airport.

The governments of Spain and the United Kingdom have announced the first agreements signed as a result of the round of negotiations which began 18 months ago to discuss the future of Gibraltar. The agreement is of particular significance because for the first time in the history of negotations over The Rock, meetings include representatives from the Gibraltan authorities and any agreement resulting from the talks must have the approval of all three parties.

According to the agreement signed today by Spain, the UK and Gibraltar, domestic flights linking Gibraltar with Spanish destinations can now operate from Gibraltar airport without the presence of Spanish and Gibraltan police controls which have been compulsory until now.

This agreement only affects Spanish flights and the application of European airport regulations will take placely in a more gradual way. Military flights are not subject to the new agreement. There will also be a direct access to the airport from Spanish soil.

Passport controls of Spanish police will be carried out in a terrace to be constructed at the end of the terminal over Spanish territory, which means Spanish police and civil guard will be able to work inside the terminal, which is on Gibraltan territory, while in theory they will be in Spanish territory because of the position of the new terrace. All reforms will be financed by the Gibraltan authorities, and a new joint company will be set up to carry out the management and maintenance of the airport. The runway and the control tower will remain under the exclusive control of the British army.

Related articles
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Negotiations in Britain over in Gibraltar
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Gibraltar's 300th anniversary of British rule
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Guide to the province of Cadiz

Spain asks for more help to deal with immigration

María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, the Spanish Vice-President, has asked for more help from the European Union to deal with the unprecedented numbers of immigrants arriving in Spain from Africa. The request was made following a meeting with the Finnish prime minister, Matti Vanhanen this week. The request will be made once again in Brussels today at a meeting with the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durao Barroso.

Spain would like operation Frontex to continue patrolling the international waters between Spain and Africa. This operation is due to end in September. De la vega has requested that it be extended to at least Decemember. Operation Frontex was brought into action last month following the constant arrival of immigrants in boats from Africa.

She also suggested setting up a integrated organisation consisting of Mediterranean countries most affected by the problem of illegal immigration -Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia in order to control maritime borders. She hopes that they can agree on a proposal to be debated at the European Summit in December.

De la Vega believes that illegal immigration is a problem that faces the EU not just individual countries. However, Fiso Roscam, the EU spokesperson on Justice, Freedom and Security, has said that no more help is available and that material help, such as Frontex will only be available until 2007 and that this depends on what each state is prepared to offer voluntarily.

Related:
Spain appeals for help to tackle rise in arrival of illegal immigrants
Migrants die in border fence crush on Spanish border
Legalisation of illegal immigrants in Spain
Foreign residents in Spain
Immigration in Spain
Reform of Spanish immigration laws
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Inmigrantes en España

Spain to send troops to the Lebanon

Although the Foreign affairs minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos, refused to place a figure on the number of soldiers that Spain is prepared to send to the Lebanon, it is rumoured that the number will be around 950 in total if certain conditions are met.

Moratinos affirmed that Spain would make a significant contribution but that this would need to be approved by parliament.

The Spanish soldiers would join the 7000 ground troops that the European Union has agreed to commit to the UN peace keeping mission to police the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. At a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels last week it was also agreed that a further 2000 specialist forces would be sent to provide naval and air support. France will be in charge of the European mission until February 2007.

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, is reported to be pleased with progress in bringing together an international force and said that it would be deployed 'in days not weeks'.

Spain offers to send troops to the Lebanon

The Spanish government has responded to a request by the UN to send peackeeping forces to the South of Lebanon once a ceasefire has been achieved. Although negotiations are still in their initial stages, it is thought that France will offer to send a substantial number of troops who will be authorized to use force if necessary. According to Spanish military sources the number of troops that could be sent would be approximately 800 soldiers.

Meanwhile Israel is continuing to bomb Lebanon in response to the kidnapping of two of its soldiers by Hezbola. Yesterday EU ministers meeting in Brussels called for an immediate ceasefire. The role of any peacekeeping forces would be to police and maintain any such ceasefire.

Michèle Alliot-Marie, The French Minister of Defence declared that any peacekeeping force deployed in the Lebanon would need to be international, credible and with a clear mission. In his opinion a force of at least 10,000 soldiers would not be enough.

The forces would be used to create a demilitarized area to the South of Lebanon, at least while the Lebanese government still maintains control over its own territory, to disarm Hezbola and control the Lebanese - Syrian border something that could take years to achieve.

Penalty points system introduced in Spain

New penalty points driving license system in Spain.

Traffic authorities claimed that the immediate results of the new penalty points system were evident this weekend as the number of deaths in accidents caused by reckless driving fell sharply with respect to the same weekend last year. The Government hopes that the penalty points system will act as a deterrent to dangerous and drunk driving which is so common in Spain.

As from the 1st July all licences have a total of 12 points except in the case of drivers who have been driving for 3 years or less; licenses for those have just 8 points.

Points will be deducted from licenses of drivers caught committing all kinds of driving offences - many new to Spain. Offending drivers will have from 2 to 6 points deducted from their licence according to how serious the offence is (see list of possible offences and number of points deducted). Points can be recuperated for good driving (2 points for drivers who manage not to lose any points for two years), and for attending special refresher theory and road safety courses. Drivers who lose all their points due to repeated offences will have their license taken away for 6 months, if it is the first time, or 12 months if it is the second. They will have to attend special course and retake a driving exam before getting their licence back. When their licence is returned it will have just 8 points.

In theory the maximum points an offender can lose in one day is 8 points, although the new system does give traffic authorities to immediately withdraw the licence if the offence is considered to be extremely serious, i.e. driving under the effects of alcohol or drugs, refusing to do a breathaliser test or driving at over 50 percent the speed limit. This weekend one individual was stopped for driving under the influence of alcohol in Sevilla, and he is thought to have become the first driver to lose all his points (and his licence) at once.

Negotations between Spanish Government and Eta

This weekend President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced that in June he intends to inform Parliament of the beginning of talks with Basque terrorist group ETA.

Speaking in a Socialist party rally in the Basque country, Zapatero reminded those present that when ETA announced the ceasefire in Spain a few weeks ago, he said then that the government needed to verify the ceasefire before they could properly initate any peace process. Since then the reports commissioned by the government as well as messages sent out from Basque separatists seem to have persuaded the Spanish President that the ceasefire is real and it is time to start talks with ETA. He will seek the approval of Congress to start negotiating in June.

The announcement was received positively by all Spanish political parties yesterday except for the Popular Party whose vice-president, Angel Acebes, criticised the government for sitting down to negotiate with ETA before the group had been completely disarmed and dissolved. The Association of Victims of Terrorism also criticised the news and announced a protest march in Madrid in June. However representatives of all the other political parties expressed their satisfaction at what they hoped was the first step on the way to a lasting peace in the Basque country.

Presumably in an attempt to appease the more critical factions of the Association of Victims of Terrorism, after announcing the start of talks yesterday, Zapatero said he planned to propose a the insertion of a clause honouring the memory of the victims of terrorism in the the introduction of the Spanish Constitution.

Zapatero also underlined his will to include all political parties in the talks. "Peace and tolerance have to be the fruit of a joint effort. Nobody should try to get ahead of anyone else" .

Related:
ETA ceasefire
Government and ETA negotiate possible ceasefire
Majority in Spain support negotiations with ETA
Eta terrorism

Spain's Defence Minister resigns

Important Government changes in Spain.

Spanish president José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called a surprise press conference this morning to announce important changes in his government caused by the sudden resignation of former Defence Minister, José Bono.

Zapatero has used the resignation to reshuffle his cabinet. Former Interior Minister (equivalent to Home Secretary), José Antonio Alonso, is to occupy the post of Defence Minister, and he will be replaced in the Interior Ministry by former government Spokesman, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. Both Alonso and Rubalcaba are close friends and key party allies of the Spanish president.

Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba played a key role in negotiating the support of other political parties in Spanish congress needed by PSOE party in order to form a Socialist government. He has also been a key negotiator in the talks and debate leading up to the Catalan Statute. His immediate task now is to lead the negotiations with ETA and play a key role in the possible peace process resulting from the permanent ceasefire announced by the Basque terrorist group last month.

In the press conference this morning, Zapatero said that José Bono had decided to resign for personal reasons, but that this would not be the end of his political career. It is rumoured that José Bono, one of Spain's most popular (and loudest) politicians, may be chosen by his party to fight the regional elections in Madrid which has been in the hands of the Popular Party for the last 16 years.

The other person to leave the cabinet, also on her own request according to Rodriguez Zapatero, is the Education Minister, María Jesús San Segundo who has never really managed to make her mark on the political scene over the past two years and has preferred to adopt a very low profile despite Education reform being one of the key policies of the present government. She will be substituted in her post by Mercedes Cabrera Calvo-Sotelo, former profesor of the Complutense University in Madrid and current Chair of the Education Reform Parliamentary Committee.

Spain's Government announces new Scientific Digital Library

Today the Spanish Minister for Education announced the creation of a new digital library to provide the academic community in Spain with immediate access to scientific articles and books. According to the government, the new digital collection will be the largest scientific library in Spain and will provide Spain's 150,000 researchers with access to the knowledge they require for their experiments and study.

This new digital collection will be called the Biblioteca Electrónica de Ciencia y Tecnología (Electronic Library of Science and Technology) and it is expected to cost about 80 million euros. According to the Education Minister, it will have 8,000 data bases and users will be able to consult the online editions of all the world's main scientific journals.

It was not made clear whether the government intends to spend money on the digitisation of these journals, something which has already been carried out in countries where use of Internet is more extended than it still is in Spain, or whether it plans to take advantage of a consolidated digital collection of scientific journals such as Stanford University's Highwire Press by way of a strategic agreement.

The Education Minister, Maria Jesus San Segundo, said today that the aim of the new Scientific Digital Library is to double the number of Spanish researchers who have access to electronic collections. According to the Minister, by next Autumn 150,000 researchers and 50,000 university students will be able to use the new facility.

Breakthrough in talks for a new statute for Catalonia, Spain

This weekend President Zapatero appears to have broken the stalemate in which all parties involved in negotiations for increased Catalan autonomy had found themselves for the past month. In what may turn out to be a surprisingly astute move, the Spanish president met with leaders of the moderate CIU Catalan party (moderate, that is, compared with the increasingly radical Esquerra Republicana) and managed to get them to compromise on two key issues which had been source of contention between Catalan separatists and most members of all the other parties of the Spanish national parliament.

The first was the word "nation". The proposal for a new statute presented by all Catalan parties (except the PP whose members remain firmly opposed to any constitutional change in Spain and terribly critical of the Government's policies which, they claim, are "disloyal" to the Spanish state) described Catalonia as a "Nation state" throughout all clauses, which caused an uproar among Spanish mainstream political parties, including many members of the governing socialist party. It also lead to some key military leaders to criticise the process and one general even went as far to say that if the Spanish national constitution was ever threatened, it was the duty of the army to protect it.

Despite the fierce criticism, until now the Catalan socialists and all indpendentist parties had defended their "right" to call Catalonia a nation. But in their meeting with the Spanish president this weekend CIU leaders agreed to modify the text, and refer to Catalonia as "a nation of Spain" in the atricles of the new statute. Catalonia will be described as a "nation" in the introduction but, apparantly, because it is not included as such in the actual articles, this will have no legal significance.

The second big compromise is on fiscal policy. The Catalan separatists were demanding total control over all taxes - income and VAT - aswell as local taxes. This weekend Zapatero proposed a 50/50 solution, whereby central government will administer half of the money generated by income and VAT taxes, and the Catalan government will administer the other half. And this was accepted by the Catalans.

Last night members of the Socialist party expressed their satisfaction with the new agreement, even colourful members such as the President of Extremadura who had strongly condemned the Catalan proposal for a new statute from the moment it was presented to Congress. Last night he told reporters the agreement reached this weekend was a victory for non-nationalists in Spain.

Meanwhile the leader of the Esquerra Republicana, Carod Rovira, said his party would not support the modifications to the text.

Infact this may turn out to be in Zapatero's in the long term. With Esquerra Republicana becoming portrayed more and more as extremists in the Spanish media, the more moderate CIU (who in the past have enjoyed the balance of power in both PSOE and PP national governments) are again gaining ground within Catalunya. And if the Statute is finally approved by Congress with the abstention of the Popular Party and the Catalan left wing separatists, it will be much more difficult for the PP to sustain its claims that Zapatero's government is in the hands of Catalan extremists. It also might be quite an embarrassment for the respective party leaders, Mariano Rajoy and Carod Rovira, who have spent the past two years insulting eachother, to suddenly find themselves voting for the same thing.

So against all odds, at least this morning, it looks like for the first time since what many see as the "pandora's box" of Catalan autonomy was opened, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero may have (for the moment) gained control of the situation. Although, of course, as is often the case in Spanish politics, it is impossible to predict for how long this will remain the case.

Related:
Support for Spain's government slides away
Basque nationalism
Zapatero announces constitutional reform in Spain

Spain's government sees support slide away

For the first time since the Madrid train bombings, support for Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the PSOE party has fallen below that of the opposition. After what has probably been the Socialist government's most complex fortnight since it came to power 18 months ago, the results of a survey published today by El Mundo suggest that if elections were held in Spain now, the Popular Party would be voted in.

Supporters of Spain's socialist government argue that Rodriguez Zapatero has had a difficult introduction to government by any standards. Natural crises like the severe drought in Spain and severe forest fires this Summer have presented a challenge to the Environment Ministry. Problems with immigration, which have been threatening to come to a head for the past 5 years, have finally peaked, constitutional reform has become an issue for the first time in the short history of Spain's democracy, European funds which financed much of Spain's development and infrastructure during the 80s and 90s have finally dried up with the entry of needier states into the EU, and the government has had to come to terms with an opposition party which, having never come to terms with or forgiven the Socialists for the result of the 2004 elections, refuses to cooperate with government, even in key issues such as terrorism.

The Socialist government has achieved some important goals during its time in power. The amnesty granted to illegal immigrants last year was a bold attempt to reveal the extent of a growing undercover workforce vital to several sectors, notably agriculture, construction and domestic labor, but mistreated by employers. As a result of the amnesty hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of whom had been living and working in Spain for years and had children attending Spanish schools, received a contract and are now paying taxes and their employers are paying their national insurance payments.

Housing policies and the new state rental agency mean that many more young people and low-income families will have access to more housing options than before, and increased investment in science and tecnology promises to address at last the fact that Spain invests less in research and new technologies than most of its European partners. Even the Spanish congress has woken up to high-tech.

Relations between the Basque government and national government are at last cordial, after years of back-biting and non-cooperation. Indeed the whole style of government in Spain has changed with policies now being debated rather than dictated to Congress. The Spanish Health Minister seems to be making progress in fighting smoking in Spain, child obesity and high alcohol and drug consumption, and gay marriages in Spain are now a reality. Progress has also been made in dealing with domestic violence in Spain.

However, despite the good things, the Socialist government has failed to provide convincing arguments or policies on several very important issues, and Zapatero will need to make some changes in government if he is to regain the support he needs to follow his first term in power with a second electoral victory.

The government is not handling the issue of Catalan autonomy with the intelligence a subject as sensitive in Spain as constitutional reform requires. It is intriguing - to a non-Spaniard - how the only party with members who opposed a wide-ranging democratic constitution at the beginning of Spanish democracy (PP) now portrays itself as the only true defensor of democratic Spain and its Constitution. And how the party whose members returned from exile to push forward the transition from dictatorship to democracy is now being accused of putting the whole constitution at risk by accommodating Catalan separatist demands. In failing to find the right balance between meeting demands of Catalan separatists in Congress while also addressing the concerns of millions of non-Catalan Spaniards, Rodriguez Zapatero has put his government in a very vulnerable position.

The second big problem Zapatero faces at the moment is how to deal with the entry of Africans desperate to enter Spain and Europe and prepared to risk their lives by climbing over the boder fences dividing Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco. Despite the need to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into Europe, most people in Spain have been moved by the images published in the media and testimonies shown on television of these poor, hopeless Sub-saharians. The solutions implemented by the government have failed to convince many. No-one can feel comfortable seeing buses of crying men, handcuffed to eachother, being ferried out of the border area to no-mans land somewhere on the border of Morocco, where they are reportedly forced to get off the bus and are abandoned with no food or water. With the help of Morocco and Spain's EU partners, the government must find a more humane and long-term solution to a problem which is not going to disappear.

The Spanish President also needs to speed up the government's long-promised educational reform (in a recent survey the great majority of Spaniards didn't know what the Education Minister was called or even what she looked like), improve foreign policy (the day after the German elections last month, Rodriguez Zapatero was the only European leader to congratulate Schroeder on his "victory" and express his satisfaction at the "defeat" of the CDU candidate who, according to German media this morning, is infact going to be Germany's next president....), provide convincing alternatives to the problem of water distribution in Spain and to improve his image within Spain and abroad if he does not want to be voted out in the next election.

Time will tell......

Spain government and ETA negotiate possible cease-fire

According to this morning's edition of El Mundo, the Spanish government and members of Basque terrorist group ETA have been maintaining "indirect" talks since the Summer and ETA has agreed to announce a cease-fire sometime in the next three months.

Spain's president, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has repeatedly said that the predisposition of his government to sit at a negotiation table with Basque separatists and consider increased powers for the Basque government depend on ETA first laying down its arms. If the Basque terrorists do announce a cease-fire, Zapatero will probably ask the Spanish congress to give its approval for the government to hold talks with all Basque separatist groups, including ETA, and seek agreement which would establish peace in the Region and the eventual disarmament of the group.

According to the El Mundo headline story, the official line is that "both sides are at the stage of negotiating a possible truce", but that infact ETA has already agreed to do so, and now the negotiations center around the wording of the announcement and when, within the next three months, it should be made. El Mundo claims that talks started moving in the right direction last August, when ETA started to be more positive about making a move which could speed up a possible peace process.

Last week the Spanish president had a meeting with José Ibarretxe in Madrid and both leaders refused to go into any detail about what they discussed. The next day, when asked repeatedly about the contents of the meeting, Ibarretxe replied that he had promised total discretion and meant to keep his word. He asked journalists to understand that for negotiations to have a positive outcome, discretion was necessary. He also said "we are doing something very important".

Spanish Defence Ministry suspends civil guards

Following conversations with President Rodriguez Zapatero yesterday, Spain's Minister of Defence announced the suspension of all the civil guards involved in the incident last week in which a man died allegedly as a result of the beating he received at the hands of the civil guard police in Roquetas de Mar.

Meanwhile more witnesses came forward claiming to have witnessed the beating in which Juan Martínez Galdeano, a farm labourer, was allegedly kicked and punched by at least four guards.

The Defence Ministry has suspended 8 of the 9 civil guards involved in the incident. The ninth is still a cadet and cannot be suspended. The reason given for the sanction is "abusing responsibility and carrying out inhumane, degrading, discriminatory or humilliating practices on people being held in police custody".

Rodriguez Zapatero also had a telephone conversation yesterday with Spain's Interior Minister who had already sanctioned the lieutenant of Roqueta's civil guard for "showing behaviour seriously contrary to the discipline, service or dignity of his institution". Following his conversation with the President, José Antonio Alonso announced that he would appear before congress this month as soon as the investigation being held is able to determine exactly what happened in the time leading up to the man's death.

The lawyer of all nine civil guards claimed this morning that his clients were being "crucified" before trial.

Spain legalises gay marriages

This morning the Spanish government finally passed the new law legalising same-sex marriages in Spain, just two days before the traditional annual "Gay pride" march is due to be held in Madrid. Parliament voted in favour of the new legislation by 187 votes in favour, 147 against and 4 abstentions.

One PP MP, Celia Villalobos, broke the party discipline code by voting in favour of the law - something which is almost unthought of within the strict confines of Popular Party norms. And the coordinator of the Gay and Lesbian section of the Popular Party later told the Spanish press waiting outside Congress that he intended to ask Madrid's charismatic PP mayor, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon (considered to be one of the party's moderates) to conduct the marriage ceremony between him and his partner this Summer. It is not known whether or not Ruiz Gallardon will agree to the request.

Spanish President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said before the vote that "a small change in the wording (of the previous legislation) respresents a massive change to the lives of thousands of compatriots". Spain now joins Belgium, Holland and Canada as the fourth country to legalise gay marriages.

Rodriguez Zapatero made an unexpected speech before the vote, in which he underlined the fact that government support for this law did not imply a vote against traditional marriage or the family, a criticism which both the Spanish Catholic Church and Popular Party members have used in their joint campaign against the new legislation. Zapatero defended the legalization of same-sex marriages today before congress in the following terms: "we are not legislating for remote or strange people. Rather we are simply extending a new opportunity for happiness to our workmates, neighbours and friends, and we are making this country more decent in doing so.... Homosexuals are just a minority, but their victory today is a victory shared by everyone, because it is the victory of freedom".

The leader of the opposition's request for the right to reply to the improvised speech was denied by the Leader of the House, Manuel Marín, who said that according to the Rules of Congress, the Government is allowed to intervene in Congress at any time to defend its policies, but that this should not be seen as an excuse to reopen the debate.

The "small change" mentioned by Zapatero refers to the following sentence which has been added to article 44 of the Civil Code as a result of today's vote. "Marriage will have the same requirements and effects whether the couple are members of the same sex or of different sexes". The new law also includes a clause that contemplates the right of same-sex couples to adopt children, which means it goes beyond the gay rights laws in the Netherlands and Belgium.

According to a survey carried last year out by the CIS, 66 percent of Spaniards approve of gay marriages, but just 48 percent approve of the right of gays to adopt children.

Related:
Gay marriages in Spain

Government in Spain proposes talks with ETA

After what has possibly been the bitterest week so far in Spanish politics with the split between Spain's two major political parties becoming wider and wider everytime a member from either party opens his or her mouth, Spanish members of parliament are expected to vote today in favor of the Socialist government's proposal to start talks with ETA if the Basque terrorist group agrees to drop all violent activity.

Last week was Spain's yearly Debate of the Nation, during which the President of Spain explains his government's policies and answers questions put to him by all parties for two days. After a series of bitter exchanges on the first day of the debate, during which the leader of the opposition party, Mariano Rajoy, accused the Socialist party of betraying the victims of ETA, the Popular Party formally withdrew its support from the anti-terrorism pact which has existed between Spain's two major parties for the past few years. The style of Rajoy during the debate was so reminiscent of that of ex-President Aznar that at one moment during one of his answers, President Rodriguez Zapatero referred to the PP leader as "Señor Aznar" by mistake.

According to a poll published yesterday by Cadena Ser, and despite frequent blunders made by this inexperienced government, Spaniards continue to prefer the moderation and messages of respect for political opponents and consensus of Zapatero to the often ruthlessly agressive style of the leaders of the opposition, and the the Spanish President's popularity has risen higher as a result of last weeks debate.

This is going to be a very complicated year for the Spanish government which needs the support of the Popular Party in order to fulfill one of its most controversial electoral promises: modification of the Spanish Constitution. Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged to inform all parties of any meetings with Basque separatists and if, as expected, the Spanish congress approves the government's motion to offer dialogue to ETA if the terrorists drop their weapons, the rift between the parties will probably become even wider (members of the Popular Party are the only representatives expected to vote against the motion).

For the results of any future negotiations between the Spanish government and Basque separatists to have any real meaning, Spain's main political parties will need to show a united front. However, relations between the two parties are at an all-time low, and it is difficult to see just how (or if) they will get out of the present rut.

Spain's defence minister visits United States

Spanish Defence Minister, Jose Bono, begins a four-day visit to the United States today.

Bono's visit represents the latest of recent attempts made by the Spanish Government to mend some of the broken bridges in the relationship between Spain and the US.

The visit to the US has begun in Washington where Jose Bono will give a lecture today in the Woodrow Wilson Center on "International terrorism and defence". Tomorrow the Spanish Defence Minister is expected to meet with Donald Rumsfeld in the Pentagon to discuss issues related to the defence programmes of both countries.

The Spanish Defence Minister is generally a very popular and charismatic figure in his own country. President of Castilla la Mancha Regional Government for 21 years, he contested the leadership of the Socialist party in 2000, backed by former Spanish president Felipe Gonzalez, and it was a surprise to most when he lost the contest to Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Bono is one of the few practising Catholics in the Socialist government and tends to get on well with members of the Church (despite the tense relationship between the Spanish government and the Roman Catholic Church), all sides of the media, and members of other policital parties. It will be interesting to see if he is capable of charming Donald Rumsfeld.

After his meeting with the US Defence Secretary, Bono will travel to New York to visit the Spanish military boat Juan Sebastian Elcano and on 4th May he will visit the naval base in Norfolk Virginia where another Spanish ship is participating in military training operations organised by the North American Navy. Finally, the Spanish Defence Minister will visit Orlando to visit another military base, Tampa, and the factory of Spanish company Indra. He returns to Spain on Friday.

Spanish government orders removal of General Franco statue

In the early hours of this morning the last statue of Franco which had stood in the Plaza San Juan in the administrative center of Madrid was quietly removed and transported to an unknown location for storage.

Spain's Employment Minister confirmed that his Ministry had given the order for the statue to be removed, reflecting what he called "a reasonable decision in a democratic state".



The statue was of Franco sitting on a horse had stood outside the incredibly ugly new ministries buildings since 1959. It was seven and a half metres high and workmen took two hours to dislodge it during the night.

Spanish national police were on hand to avoid any violent incidents, but in the end very few people turned up to witness the last statue of the Spanish dictator disapper into a lorry and be driven away.

Spanish government to set up property renting agency

According to figures published by the Youth Council (Consejo de la Juventud) last year, 64 percent of people aged between 18 and 34 in Spain still live with their parents because they can not afford to buy a house and because property available for long-term rent is both scarce and relatively expensive. In an attempt to make more rented accommodation available, the Spanish government proposes to set up an agency to encourage property owners to rent out empty flats and to persuade young people to see renting a property as an economically viable alternative to buying a house.

Details of this new government agency have been released today. It will be called the State Renting Company (La Sociedad Publica de Alquiler) and will rent out privately-owned property on behalf of the property owners. The idea is for owners of empty homes (usually people who have bought property as a medium or long-term investment) to use the company as a kind of renting agency, handing over the right to rent to the agency, and to receive a monthly rent from the agency for a given period, say five years.

This means that owners will not have to look for and interview tenants or chase after any unpaid rent. And they may even be able to claim the five years rent in one lump sum, which is bound to attract lots of people who would otherwise be reluctant to rent out their second or third properties, but seems a bit excessive. Until the Agency finds tenants, the monthly rent paid to owners will be public money. The policy may prove very attractive to non-resident owners of Spanish property who often find it very difficult to rent out property they buy in Spain to long-term tenants, and even more difficult to keep up with monthly rent payments.

The government aims to create a pool of 25,500 properties to rent in Spain over the next four years, and to offer them at a lower monthly rent than the current average so that more young people and low-income families can afford to take this option.

Related links
News on the property market in Spain
Buying a house in Spain
Mortgages in Spain for non-residents

Spanish government plan to tackle obesity

Yesterday the Spanish government announced a national plan aimed at reducing obesity amongst the Spanish population. The plan especially targets obesity in children.

The Spanish Health Minister, Elena Salgado, announced that the government has reached an agreement with the Spanish food industry whereby food companies have agreed to reduce the percentage of fats, sodium and salt in processed foods. According to the Spanish minister, the rise in obesity in Spain is particularly alarming in children. She said that the government's objective was to reduce obesity and to help Spaniards improve their eating habits and do more exercise.

To help the government in its task, the Health Ministry has signed agreements with food companies, regional governments and 80 organizations related to the food and leisure industries all of whom have been involved in drawing up Spain's first ever "get healthy and lose weight" strategy. The Spanish government plans to intervene in school meals, proposing a parliamentary decree to establish quality standards. It also plans to remove food and drink vending machines from schools and other places used by 6 to 12-year olds, and to control what kind of foods are sold in the machines which remain standing.

According to yesterday's agreement, over the next four years the percentage of salt in bread will be reduced from 2.2 percent to 1.8 percent, and companies will also cut down on the aomunt of sodium and saturated fats that go into their products. All foods will have to display a ticket with nutritional information, and restaurants will also have to detail the nutritional content of their dishes in the menu.

The Mediterranean diet has long been considered to be one of the most healthy in the world because it is based on fruit, vegetables, pulses, olive oil and a high intake of fish. However, over the past few years Spaniards have been introducing more and more processed foods into their diet and according to Elena Salgado, over 38 percent of the adult population in Spain is over weight.

Gibraltar, negotiations in Britain

Yesterday representatives from the Spanish and British governments and Peter Caruana, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, had the first round of a series of talks planned to discuss the future of Gibraltar. This round of talks is a result of the recent meeting between Spanish foreign minister, Moratinos, and British foreign minister, Straw, when it was decided that from now on any negotiations held between the two countries about the future of the Rock would include representatives from Gibraltar. Apparantly nothing was agreed in the talks, but the Spanish government, and a large section of the media, seem to find the mere fact that they were held very encouraging.

Meanwhile Moratinos has had a 10-minute meeting in Brussels with Colin Powell before the NATO meeting which began at 9.00 this morning. Moratinos wanted to inform Powell of the results of his recent trip to the Middle East and also to discuss the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

After the NATO meeting, the Spanish foreign minister will have separate talks with Jack Straw (they are expected to discuss yesterday's meeting and may give a statement to reporters afterwards) and the Turkish foreign minister Abdulá Gul.

Franco-Spanish summit

Spain's president José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero received a welcome boost to his foreign policy yesterday with the visit of Jacques Chirac to Spain. In what was billed as a summit meeting between the Spanish and French governments, the two presidents held a meeting in the morning, followed by a press conference and a walk around Zaragoza, the city chosen by Zapatero to host the meeting. Members of both governments also attended the summit, and had fringe meetings with their respectives.

For the first time in Spanish history, the central government invited the presidents of all the Spanish regions bordering with France to attend a Franco-Spanish summit meeting. Presidents Maragall (Catalonia), Sanz (Navarra) and Iglesias (Aragon) all accepted the invitation, and participated in the summit. One of the items on the agenda was to think how to improve air, rail and road connections over the border or, in the words of the Spanish government, "how to make the Pyrenees permeable". The only regional president to refuse the invitation was Juan José Ibarretxe, who decided not to attend the meeting because, according to sources from the Basque government, he "wouldn't be allowed to express his own opinion". The same sources did not explain how or why they had reached that conclusion. The participants who were present agreed to hold the first ever Franco-Spanish Border Regions Summit in 2005. Maybe the Basque Government will attend that one.

The press conference held after the summit was predictably affable. Chirac declared France's support for the new Spanish foreign policy towards Cuba, and said that the recent liberation of Cuban dissidents by the Castro dictatorship was proof that Spain's new approach was having a positive effect. Both presidents expressed their support for UN chairman Kofi Annan, accused by US republican senators recently of allowing corruption in the "oil for food" program. Both Chirac and Zapatero said they believed the attacks to be unjustified.

Spanish Government will raise the minimum salary

Yesterday the Spanish government announced that in July it will raise the minimum salary by 6.6% to 490 Euros per month, 14 months per year (workers' yearly salaries in Spain are divided over a period of 14 months rather than 12, because they earn a double wage at Christmas and in June). This will be the first of successive rises over the next four years. By the end of this legislature, the Socialist Government wants the minimum wage to stand at 600 Euros (x 14).

Meanwhile, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee voted on a shortlist of candidates to host the 2012 Olympic Games and ranked Madrid second in the list, behind Paris. Madrid scored well in all categories, and yesterday evening the Mayor of Madrid said he was confident that between now and July next year when the final vote will be cast in Singapore, Madrid would be able to improve the areas in which it scored less than the French capital. He said that the fact that Paris has already staged the Olympic Games and Madrid not would act in favor of the Spanish capital's candidature. The list of shortlisted cities in order of ranking is Paris, Madrid, London, New York and Moscow.

Aznar is back in Spain after his controversial trip to the USA. It has emerged that President Bush was not the only friend present in the meeting the two had yesterday. According to Cadena Ser, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney also attended this private meeting. When it concluded, neither Aznar nor Bush made any declarations to the media. Aznar left via one of the side exits of the White House. Back in Spain, according to El Mundo, when President Zapatero was asked by reporters on Monday to give an opinion on the declarations made by Aznar criticising the election results and the new Spanish government's policy on Iraq, Zapatero said Aznar's criticism had not made him feel "uncomfortable" at all, and that "each person has his own style of doing things". The Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, gave a similar opinion when asked by reporters. He said he was not concerned about Aznar's declarations which lacked "importance" and "influence".

Today President Zapatero receives the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei having yesterday held a meeting with the foreign minister of Israel, Silvan Shalom. Zapatero and Ahmed Qorei will give a press conference after their meeting and will then have lunch together with Javier Solana (EU Foreign Policy and Security Representative), Miguel Angel Moratinos and Marc Otte (the EU special envoy to the Middle East). Zapatero is convinced that there will be no viable solution to Islamic extremist terrorism until the conflict between Israel and Palestine is solved, and he wants Spanish foreign policy to concentrate on trying to put an end to the violence perpetrated by the Israeli government and Palestine extremists in this area.

Support for Spain's Socialist government rising.

According to the results of survey carried out by Spain's Centro de Investigaciones Sociologicas, CIS and published yesterday, the Socialist Party has doubled its lead over the Popular Party during its first month in power. Since the March elections, the socialist's have seen their popularity rise steadily, and according to the results of the latest CIS survey, they now have a 10.4% lead over the Popular Party.

The Centro de Investigaciones Sociologicas (CIS) [Centre for Sociological Research] is an autonomous state agency attached to the Office of the Presidency of Spain, whose purpose is to study Spanish society, primarily through survey-based research. It carries out regular surveys to measure the Spanish population support for political parties, leaders and policies. This latest report estimates that if elections were held now in Spain, the POSE party would win 45,8% of the vote and the PAP 35,4%. The most popular party leader at the moment is Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (6,61) and the second most popular party leader is Aznar's successor, Mariano Rajoy (4,83). The results of this first post-election CIS survey is one of the main headlines in all the Spanish press this morning, because of the proximity of the European Elections.

According to the CIS survey, 76,8% of Spanish citizens support the Government's decision to withdraw from Iraq. Yesterday the Spanish Congress voted to support the decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq. The PP was the only party that voted against the policy. The first contingent of Spanish soldiers arrive home this evening.

Finally, political commentators are, at the very least, rather surprised at the visit of ex-President Aznar to the US. According to press reports, Aznar travels to Los Angeles today, where tomorrow he will meet with Arnold Schwarzenegger and will be awarded the medal of the University of Chapman. On Tuesday he will have a meeting with George Bush and, possibly, Donald Rumsfeld. According to the Cadena Ser, the timing of this trip and especially the meeting with Donald Rumsfeld, has been criticised from within the Popular Party.

Zapatero announces constitutional reform in Spain

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero continues to surprise many sectors in Spain with the speed at which he is working to fulfill his electoral promises.

Yesterday in what many newspapers hail as a historic occasion in the Spanish Senate, Zapatero led a debate centred around the theme of constitutional reform, one of the most controversial items in the Socialist electoral campaign for the Popular Party, who throughout the campaign warned that the unity of Spain would become more precarious under a Socialist government and maintained that the Spanish constitution should never be reformed. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero however has always insisted that a the constitution should reflect the will of its people, and that successful constitutional reform, achieved by dialogue and consensus, reflects the maturity of a nation rather than its weaknesses.

Yesterday Zapatero, flanked by 10 of the 16 government ministers, made a speech in the Senate which stressed his wish to give the Upper House a greater role in policies affecting regional autonomies, so that it effectively has more executive power and relevance in Spanish politics. The Spanish President wants all proposals for legislative reform affecting the powers and financing of Spain's autonomous regions to receive their first reading in the Senate, and to do this the text of the Third Chapter of the Spanish constitution has to be changed. Zapatero said he sought the support of all parties in this process "The best reform is that which achieves consensus" he said. At the beginning of his speech, Zapatero was booed by representatives of the Popular Party. "I told you that the Senate needed this debate" he replied, "and I hope that nobody will exclude themselves or will feel excluded" (from the process leading up to the eventual reform of the Spanish constitution).

During the debate the spokesmen of all the Spanish nationalist parties in the Senate welcomed Zapatero's appearance in the Upper House as well as the contents of his speech, and for the first time the Popular Party spokesman in the Senate said his party would not oppose constitutional reform if it served to give the Senate a new, relevant role in Spanish politics.

Yesterday was the first time since 1986 that a President of Spain has participated in a debate with representatives of the Spanish Senate, and the majority of Spanish newspapers this morning are supportive of Zapatero's decisive appearance in the Senate and of a new atmosphere of general consensus (this is the first time the PP has not opposed the notion of constitutional reform) in Spanish politics.

Rosa Regas next Director of the National Library of Spain

According to government sources, the author Rosa Regas will be named on Friday, after the weekly Cabinet meeting, as the new Director of the National Library of Spain.

Born in 1933, Regas is one of Spain's most respected contemporary authors even though she started her career as a novelist quite late on. According to her personal website, in 1983 nearing her 50th birthday, she suddenly thought "I've had lots of children and I've planted lots of trees, but at this rate I'll die without having ever written a book". Six years later she published her first book.

In 2001 Regas was awarded the Premio Planeta, Spain's most prestigious literary prize, for her book La Cancion de Dorotea which she signed with a pen-name. In the speech she made when accepting the prize, worth over half a million euros, Rosa said "It is difficult for me to express the emotion I am feeling. I am delighed, because I am going to reach a wider audience, but above all, because at last I am going to be able to buy something I've always wanted to buy for myself: time".

She will have to give some of her new-found time up now in her new post at the National Library. Most literary experts will applaud the appointment of this popular, progressive Spanish writer as Director of one of the country's most prized cultural institutions. Rosa Regas has five children and eleven grandchildren.

Spain Refused US Military Request to Hunt down Iraq Leader

Yesterday in different interviews with the Spanish media, both the Defence Minister Jose Bono and the military commander of Spanish troops in Iraq, General Enrique de Ayala, confirmed that Spain refused a request received from the U.S. military command to capture "dead or alive" a leading Iraqui religious leader (presumably the radical chii iman Muqtada Al Sader.

In declarations to Cadena Ser, General Ayala said "Our mandate from the Spanish government was to carry out a mission of stabilization and humanitarian aid. The equipment we brought was conceived for that mission and we received no change of mandate to wage large-scale military operations." In a frank interview, General Ayala said he thought the decision by coalition troops to close a local newspaper in Nayaf, and to arrest Muqtada Al Sader were strategic errors which had only served to worsen the relations between locals and military troops. He said the atmosphere had taken a turn for the worse since these actions in the predominantly Chii area where Spanish troops are deployed, and said that had he been consulted by his US military colleagues he would have advised against these two unpopular measures.

Meanwhile Jose Bono, in the news conference held yesterday after visiting the Spanish troops in Iraq, backed the General and said that Spain could not "take part in offensive actions and therefore we said flat-out that we were not willing to hand in, as we were asked at one point, alive or dead, a certain religious leader." Bono said that withdrawal operations are progressing well, and that the troops may be home a few days earlier than May 27 as originally scheduled. He said control of the Spanish base in the south-central city of Diwaniyah would be handed over to the U.S. troops some time between May 13-15.

Spanish government aims to control mosques and imans in Spain

In what is considered as quite a controversial move, Spain's socialist government has decided to try to curb extremist messages sent out by moslem religious leaders in mosques. Earlier this week Spain's Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, told reporters: "It is important that we know what is said in the Friday sermon. Mosques have sprung up in Spain in a completely uncontrolled fashion."

Yesterday his opinion became official policy, as after the cabinet meeting the vice-president and government spokeswoman, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, that the Government intended to work with moslem communities in Spain to prevent mosques from being used to give violent messages. According to the PSOE spokeswoman, reforms will be made "seeking maximum consensus with groups, respecting religious freedom and the freedom of citizens. According to Cadena Ser, sources from the Spanish judiciary have specified that "the majority of moslem religious services in Spain respect Spanish law, but we have received reports from the Moslem community that some minorities use these ocasions to promote violence. And the Spanish Constitution specifies that religious freedom is determined by public order"

Spanish government orders a full investigation of events around the 11-M terrorist attacks

Yesterday the Spanish government said it would create a special commission to investigate the 11 March train bombings in Madrid. The announcement was given after the leader of the opposition, Mariano Rajoy, asked for a commission to be established to investigate "what happened in Spain between 11th and 14th March".

Until now the PSOE has said that no commission would be created before the appearance of the former Interior Minister, Angel Acebes, before the Official Secrets Commission.

Yesterday, responding to requests from the PP in the light of information published yesterday in the media, and to other opposition parties, the Government said that the commission would be set up. But that its prime mission would be to investigate how to prevent a similar catastrophe from ever occuring again.

Special commissions in Spain allow political parties to call on witnesses, and both proceedings and results of the commission are generally public.

Spanish president's visit to Germany

Jose Luis Zapatero, Spain's new president, travelled to Germany today to hold talks with the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. After their meeting, both leaders gave a press conference in which they said they would work, together with France, towards a new United Nations resolution which would give sovereignty as soon as possible to Iraq. Zapatero stressed that the fact the Spanish troops were withdrawing from Iraq, did not mean that Spain would withdraw from the international effort to find solutions to the situation in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Profiles of new Spanish Ministers

This week the new ministers and secretaries of the Socialist Government in Spain have been officially accepting their new post and pledging loyalty to their country. We have received several messages from Euroresidentes users with specific enquiries about individual members of the new Spanish Government and are preparing brief profiles on key ministers. The first ones published today are Miguel Angel Moratinos, Foreign Minister, Jose Bono, Defence Minister, and Pedro Solbes, Finance Minister.

Spanish withdrawal of troops from Irak

Miguel Moratinos, the new Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, was interviewed on Cadena Ser radio this morning about Zapatero's surprise announcement yesterday that Spanish troops would be pulled out of Iraq as quickly as possible, rather than waiting until June.

Moratinos said this morning that Spain's new Government had made this decision based on the results of an intensive round of meetings and conversations he and the new Defence Minister, Jose Bono, have had since their party won the Spanish elections last month. Between them they consulted the heads of government of 12 countries about whether a UN handover at the end of June was possible. Moratinos said he also consulted top UN representatives. All of these conversations led to the same conclusion - ithat is was highly improbable that the UN would be allowed to take military and political control of the transition in Iraq, while the post-war situation there is getting more and more complicated.

Moratinos said that the announcement yesterday was also intended to deliver a political statement to the Spanish people - that the new Government will fulfill its electoral promises. Ever since Aznar decided to actively support the US invasion and occupation of Iraq without consulting Congress and despite the opposition of 90% of the Spanish people, Zapatero promised that if he won the elections this year, he would withdraw the troops. Moratinos said that given the general consensus in the international community that the UN would not be given a leading role in the conflict, there was no point in prolonging the uncertainty about when Spanish troops would return.

Sr. Moratinos confirmed that he spoke yesterday with Colin Powell hours before the announcement was made and that although Powell was disappointed, he said he understood the political nature of the decision. The Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister says he hopes that the decision will not damage Spain's diplomatic relations with the United States, and he confirmed that he will go ahead with his trip to the USA this week, where he will meet with Powell and Condoleezza Rice, as well as representatives of the US Senate and Congress.

Moratinos rejected accusations that the decision to withdraw troops was a way of giving in to terrorism. He reminded Cadena Ser listeners that the original justification for military action presented to the Spanish public by Aznar was that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction which represented a threat to world peace and had to be found and destroyed. The invasion was never put forward as an answer to terrorism. Since the invasion took place, no weapons of mass destruction have been found, and the international terrorism situation has worsened.

Moratinos said that the new Socialist Government would take a firm stance against national and international terrorism, and that the Spanish Government would continue to collaborate with other countries in looking for ways to solve the crisis in Iraq, and that any solution which respected international law and involved UN leadership would have Spain's full support.

The Government has announced that the new Defence Minister, Jose Bono, will hold a press conference this afternoon after the Cabinet of Ministers has held its first meeting, to further explain the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq, and Zapatero has called for an extraordinary parliamentary session tomorrow so that he can explain his decision before congress. A debate will be held afterwards, so that all parties can express their opinion. Yesterday all political parties represented in the Spanish parliament, with the exception of the Popular Party, confirmed their support for the immediate withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the PP, strongly criticised the move.