Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was sworn in as Spanish prime minister on Saturday and picked a Cabinet blending newcomers with experienced hands in charge of the economy and foreign policy.
King Juan Carlos presided over the solemn ceremony at the Zarzuela palace near Madrid, completing a shake-up of Spanish politics in the wake of last month's suspected al Qaeda-linked train bombings that killed 191 people.
"I promise on my conscience and honor to comply faithfully with the obligations of prime minister ...," Zapatero said, watched by outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
PHOTO: AP
Zapatero chose to take a non-religious oath of office -- promising with his hand on the Spanish Constitution -- rather than swearing on the Bible.
He becomes Spain's fifth prime minister since democracy was restored after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
Later Zapatero, 43, announced a Cabinet of eight men and eight women, fulfilling a promise to appoint equal numbers of men and women. Aznar's last Cabinet included five women.
Zapatero's Cabinet includes many members with no ministerial experience, but he put the most critical portfolios in seasoned hands.
His Socialists were the surprise winners of elections held three days after the March 11 train bombings, ousting the strongly pro-US Popular Party.
The Socialists won 164 seats in the lower house of parliament -- 12 short of an absolute majority -- and need support from regional or left-wing parties to get their policies through.
Mariano Rajoy, leader of the main opposition Popular Party, attacked the new government in a speech on Saturday, calling it weak and unstable.
Pedro Solbes, who stepped down early as EU monetary affairs commissioner, will oversee one of the euro zone's fastest growing economies, taking the helm of a powerful, combined economy and finance ministry.
Solbes, 61, served as agriculture and, later, economy minister under Felipe Gonzalez, Spain's last Socialist prime minister.
Miguel Angel Moratinos, 52, a veteran diplomat and former EU Middle East envoy, takes over as foreign minister.
He will need all his diplomatic skills if Zapatero goes ahead with his pledge to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq unless the UN takes charge there by the end of June.
US President George W. Bush has urged Spain and other allies in Iraq to stick with Washington.
Moratinos will leave on an official visit to Washington tomorrow, a day after taking office, to show Zapatero's interest in maintaining good relations with the US, ABC said. A Socialist party spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Moratinos will hold talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
He will stop over in Dublin for talks with Brian Cowen, foreign minister of current EU president Ireland, on the proposed EU constitution, ABC said.
Spanish opposition to a change in EU voting rules helped block agreement on the new constitution, but Zapatero has pledged to do all he can to get an agreement by mid-year.
Zapatero named Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, 54, a former secretary of state for justice, as first deputy prime minister while Solbes becomes second deputy prime minister.
Zapatero chose Socialist party heavyweight Jose Bono as defense minister. Bono, 53, will have to repair relations with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who he insulted earlier this year in private remarks to a colleague that were picked up by a television station's microphone.
The investigation of the March 11 bombings will be entrusted to Jose Antonio Alonso, 44, a former judge.
He takes over the Interior Ministry, while law professor Juan Fernando Lopez, 42, becomes justice minister.
Twenty-one people including 15 Moroccans are being held in connection with the March 11 attacks on packed commuter trains.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘EAST SHIELD’: State-run Belma said it would produce up to 6 million mines to lay along Poland’s 800km eastern border, and sell excess to nations bordering Russia and Belarus Poland has decided to start producing anti-personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War, and plans to deploy them along its eastern border and might export them to Ukraine, the deputy defense minister said. Joining a broader regional shift that has seen almost all European countries bordering Russia, with the exception of Norway, announce plans to quit the global treaty banning such weapons, Poland wants to use anti-personnel mines to beef up its borders with Belarus and Russia. “We are interested in large quantities as soon as possible,” Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawel Zalewski said. The mines would be part
RSS