NAME: Josi Luis Rodrmguez Zapatero

AGE: 43

NATIONALITY: Spanish

CLAIM TO FAME: America’s ‘unfriendly’ ally

OPPONENTS called him inexperienced while others thought he lacked charisma. But Josi Luis Rodrmguez Zapatero is now Spain’s Prime Minister-elect, bringing the country’s Socialists from political wilderness to a spectacular polls victory on Sunday last.

Spaniards voted to remove Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar from power, apparently blaming his staunch support of the US-led war in Iraq for the bombings that killed 200 people in Madrid on March 11. Opinion polls taken before the attacks had indicated a comfortable victory for Aznar’s Popular Party. But voters overwhelmingly endorsed support for the opposition Socialist Party, whose leader, Zapatero, promised to immediately withdraw Spain’s 1,300 troops from Iraq, redirect Spain’s foreign policy away from the US and restore good relations with such European allies as France and Germany that had opposed the Iraq war.

Speaking after his election victory, Zapatero called the US-led war in Iraq “a disaster” and re-affirmed pre-election pledge to withdraw Spanish troops serving there by the end of June, unless an UN-led multinational force takes command.

“Wars such as those which have occurred in Iraq only allow hatred, violence and terror to proliferate,” Zapatero insisted. “You can’t organize a war on the basis of lies,” he added, in an allusion to the insistence by Washington, London and Madrid that the conflict was justified by their belief Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He also warned that President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair “need to engage in some self-criticism” on their decision to launch a war against Iraq.

Despite such bold words, the new man in command in Spain is famed for his coolness and colleagues say they have never seen him angry. Indeed, Zapatero’s tendency to compromise may prove a valuable asset as he looks to form a government with left-wing allies or regional parties. He will now need his cool head and calm temper to unite Spain after its worst bomb attack. But he has also never served in Spain’s Cabinet, leading some to question whether he is ready for the role.

Ideologically, Rodrmguez Zapatero is a moderate, closer to social democracy than socialism. He is from a family with left-wing ideas — his grandfather was a Republican captain who was executed by the Nationalists at the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. He studied law but he has passionately stuck to politics since 16 years of age when he attended a political rally. The speaker was Felipe Gonzalez, a charismatic Socialist leader who guided Spain’s return to democracy in the 1980s after decades of dictatorship.

Zapatero was the Socialists’ youngest lawmaker when first elected in 1986 at age 26. He shone sufficiently in local politics in the northern city of Leon, where he grew up, for the Socialists to turn to him after their disastrous 2000 election campaign, when Aznar won a second term. Zapatero’s belief in national reconciliation over revenge could serve him well with the Spanish public, which for years had been led by the confrontational Jose Maria Aznar. Zapatero’s watchwords are “listen” and “dialogue”, and they come accompanied by his professed belief in seeking consensus. As opposition leader, Zapatero frequently proposed pacts with Aznar’s conservative government on issues such as fighting separatist terrorism in the Basque region. He has cast himself as a calm leader, capable of building consensus, touched by humility.