Tuesday, July 27, 2004
What makes us so different:
Spain Govt Puts 'Social' Back in Socialism
By ED McCULLOUGHThe Associated PressTuesday, July 27, 2004; 5:37 AM
MADRID, Spain - Propelled to power by anger over the country's worst terror attack, Spain's new Socialist government first tackled foreign policy, fulfilling a pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq.
But 100 days later, the Socialists are living up to their name, turning their attention to liberal social change.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's agenda includes support for stem cell research, hiking wages and pensions, creating affordable housing and, perhaps most dramatically, legalizing same-sex marriage.
"What we expect from this government is ... the realization of a dream, the possibility of matrimony between people of the same sex," said Pedro Zerolo, a lawyer who is the first openly gay man elected to Madrid's city council. "We're counting the days."
The Socialists sailed to victory in elections three days after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people. Many Spaniards blamed former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for the attack, saying his support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq had left his own country vulnerable to Islamic militants accused of carrying out the attack.
Not surprisingly Zapatero had wide support for his decision to recall 1,300 troops from Iraq and shift foreign policy toward the European Union and away from the United States.
The Socialists' social agenda, however, is not as popular.
Church officials in this predominantly Roman Catholic country of 40 million people are furious.
Members of Parliament "have the moral obligation to express clearly and publicly their disagreement and vote against the projected law" on same-sex marriages, the Spanish bishop's conference fumed last week.
Aznar's conservative Popular Party, still the second-biggest bloc in Parliament, has vowed to fight some Socialist initiatives such as restricting religious instruction in public schools.
Trouble - political gridlock, cultural clashes - dead ahead? Maybe not.
Spain has changed in many ways in not so many decades, from agricultural to industrial, rural to urban, poor to prosperous, religious to secular, parochial to cosmopolitan.
Zapatero, 43, wants his Cabinet, and its policies, to reflect those changes.
"It's not a 'new' Spain. The reality is ... Spain already has changed," said Beatriz Gimeno, head of the state Federation of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals. Gimeno plans to marry her partner as soon as the law recognizes their union.
Two-thirds of Spaniards polled recently approved of same-sex marriage, and nearly half thought gays should be allowed to adopt children. The poll released last week by the Center for Sociological Research - a state agency - was based on interviews with 2,479 people and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Zapatero's choices for his Cabinet reflect his progressive beliefs.
Half the Cabinet's 16 members are women, a record for Spain. The deputy prime minister is a woman, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who fills in for Zapatero when he's out of the country.
Maria Emilia Casas Baamonde last month was appointed president of the Constitutional Tribunal, the state's highest authority on constitutional matters - the first time a woman has held that post, and a highly visible demonstration of Zapatero's commitment to women's rights and equality.
The new government already has distinguished itself on domestic issues by following through on promises to raise the minimum wage by 6.6 percent, from about $600 a month from $565.
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Jesus Caldera also aims to increase retirement pensions by at least 26 percent before the next general elections in 2008.
There's ample political and public support for these and other measures, including protection for battered housewives, a significant social problem here.
Clear sailing for the Socialists, however, is by no means guaranteed.
The government is facing pressure for constitutional reform. The Basque country and Catalonia - Spain's industrial, banking and economic heartland, along with Madrid - want more autonomy.
Further terrorism by the Basque separatist group ETA or another strike by Islamic militants can't be ruled out.
There also seems to be a worrisome real estate bubble, and Big Business is leery about giving up short-term job contracts.
But so far, the Socialists seem to be making more friends than enemies.
"If for every problem we have to set up a ministry... well, it's one way of focusing on it," the president of a business association, Claudio Boada, quipped in an interview, referring to the new Housing Ministry.
Soledad Murillo, head of the Women's Institute, credits the 1996-2004 Popular Party government with balancing the budget, creating 5 million jobs and ushering in the euro in January 2002.
But "the former government didn't care much about social aspects," she said. "What's surprising about Zapatero is that he talks about concepts like peace, understanding. That gives me an enormous sense of security, tranquility as a citizen."
Spain Govt Puts 'Social' Back in Socialism
By ED McCULLOUGHThe Associated PressTuesday, July 27, 2004; 5:37 AM
MADRID, Spain - Propelled to power by anger over the country's worst terror attack, Spain's new Socialist government first tackled foreign policy, fulfilling a pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq.
But 100 days later, the Socialists are living up to their name, turning their attention to liberal social change.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's agenda includes support for stem cell research, hiking wages and pensions, creating affordable housing and, perhaps most dramatically, legalizing same-sex marriage.
"What we expect from this government is ... the realization of a dream, the possibility of matrimony between people of the same sex," said Pedro Zerolo, a lawyer who is the first openly gay man elected to Madrid's city council. "We're counting the days."
The Socialists sailed to victory in elections three days after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people. Many Spaniards blamed former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for the attack, saying his support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq had left his own country vulnerable to Islamic militants accused of carrying out the attack.
Not surprisingly Zapatero had wide support for his decision to recall 1,300 troops from Iraq and shift foreign policy toward the European Union and away from the United States.
The Socialists' social agenda, however, is not as popular.
Church officials in this predominantly Roman Catholic country of 40 million people are furious.
Members of Parliament "have the moral obligation to express clearly and publicly their disagreement and vote against the projected law" on same-sex marriages, the Spanish bishop's conference fumed last week.
Aznar's conservative Popular Party, still the second-biggest bloc in Parliament, has vowed to fight some Socialist initiatives such as restricting religious instruction in public schools.
Trouble - political gridlock, cultural clashes - dead ahead? Maybe not.
Spain has changed in many ways in not so many decades, from agricultural to industrial, rural to urban, poor to prosperous, religious to secular, parochial to cosmopolitan.
Zapatero, 43, wants his Cabinet, and its policies, to reflect those changes.
"It's not a 'new' Spain. The reality is ... Spain already has changed," said Beatriz Gimeno, head of the state Federation of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals. Gimeno plans to marry her partner as soon as the law recognizes their union.
Two-thirds of Spaniards polled recently approved of same-sex marriage, and nearly half thought gays should be allowed to adopt children. The poll released last week by the Center for Sociological Research - a state agency - was based on interviews with 2,479 people and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Zapatero's choices for his Cabinet reflect his progressive beliefs.
Half the Cabinet's 16 members are women, a record for Spain. The deputy prime minister is a woman, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who fills in for Zapatero when he's out of the country.
Maria Emilia Casas Baamonde last month was appointed president of the Constitutional Tribunal, the state's highest authority on constitutional matters - the first time a woman has held that post, and a highly visible demonstration of Zapatero's commitment to women's rights and equality.
The new government already has distinguished itself on domestic issues by following through on promises to raise the minimum wage by 6.6 percent, from about $600 a month from $565.
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Jesus Caldera also aims to increase retirement pensions by at least 26 percent before the next general elections in 2008.
There's ample political and public support for these and other measures, including protection for battered housewives, a significant social problem here.
Clear sailing for the Socialists, however, is by no means guaranteed.
The government is facing pressure for constitutional reform. The Basque country and Catalonia - Spain's industrial, banking and economic heartland, along with Madrid - want more autonomy.
Further terrorism by the Basque separatist group ETA or another strike by Islamic militants can't be ruled out.
There also seems to be a worrisome real estate bubble, and Big Business is leery about giving up short-term job contracts.
But so far, the Socialists seem to be making more friends than enemies.
"If for every problem we have to set up a ministry... well, it's one way of focusing on it," the president of a business association, Claudio Boada, quipped in an interview, referring to the new Housing Ministry.
Soledad Murillo, head of the Women's Institute, credits the 1996-2004 Popular Party government with balancing the budget, creating 5 million jobs and ushering in the euro in January 2002.
But "the former government didn't care much about social aspects," she said. "What's surprising about Zapatero is that he talks about concepts like peace, understanding. That gives me an enormous sense of security, tranquility as a citizen."
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