José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was appointed Prime Ministero of Spain in 2004. His period as an opposition leader has started four years ago, in 2000.

That year, the PSOE had lost its second successive election to José María Aznar's People's Party. The defeat was specially bitter as the People's Party unexpectedly obtained an absolute majority for the first time and the socialist result was worse than in the previous election. Joaquín Almunia, the Socialist candidate and successor of Felipe González as leader of the party, announced his resignation on the very day the General Election took place.

Soon afterwards (on July 23 2000) Rodríguez Zapatero was elected leader of the PSOE after being appointed Secretary General of the party [1]. He was the representative of a faction known as "Nueva Vía" ("New Way"), self-defined as modernizing. Its ideology is supposedly inspired by [Tony Blair]'s "[Third Way]" although the ideological differences between the Spanish and British leaders are important (as the Iraq war made clear). Zapatero ran against three other opponents (José Bono, Rosa Díez and Matilde Fernández) and won by a very small margin (he obtained 414 votes out of 995 and José Bono obtained 405). Zapatero was a dark horse who had against him his inexperience and in favor his image of renovation and being the only [Member of Parliament|MP] among the candidates. (All the Spanish opposition leaders have been MPs before winning the elections. That is very important in Spanish politics where electoral campaigns last for only 15 days and to be widely known long before they begin is essential.)

According to some opinions, by becoming the main spokesperson of PSOE's parliamentary group and actively critizicing the government of José María Aznar, Zapatero used his seat in the Cortes to try to shift the focus of opposition from the media to the parliament.

As an opposition leader Zapatero continuously boasted his self-alleged "love for dialogue", which he liked to compare with the "arrogant", "authoritarian" approach of the People's Party and, especially, that of his leader José María Aznar. To describe his strategy he coined the expression Tranquil Opposition (Oposición Tranquila). It was supposedly based on an "open to dialogue", "soft", "constructive" attitude ('Talante') aimed not at damaging the government but at achieving the "best" for the people. (Zapatero has insisted on this point so many times that the term 'Talante' has become very popular in Spain.) Because of this supposed tactic, Zapatero received nicknames like "[Bambi]" or "Sosoman" (where "Soso" -- meaning dull, insipid, bore -- replaces "Super" in "[Superman]"), especially in the first months after being appointed General Secretary.

Zapatero's years as an opposition leader (and later as Prime Minister) has been widely considered a time of continuous radicalization of the Spanish political life, a phenomenon also observed by some international media [2]. Zapatero's supporters blame his opponents for that and the People's Party blames him stating facts as the increase in the acts of violence committed against them, especially in the months before and during the Iraq war [3]. Zapatero himself took part several times in public demonstrations where small groups committed acts of vandalism in a limited fashion. As a result, a new term has become popular: guerracivilismo [4] (made up of a combination of the Spanish for Civil War and the -ismo suffix, equivalent to the English -ism), which would refer to the growing enmity of right and left-wing factions.

Summing up the different views, it can be said that Zapatero's supporters define him as a capacious, good-natured, humble leader open to dialogue. His opponents, on the other hand and in different degrees, accuse him of being an unprepared, radical politician and (after winning the 2004 Election) of not having a serious program.

Zapatero's criticism against the government was very active from the beginning. His first attack against the government was based on its inability to control the rise in the price of fossil fuel in 2000. He asked for a reduction in the taxes on fuel.

At the end of the same year, the Mad Cow disease came back to the spotlight after its outbreak in 1996. Zapatero repeatedly criticized the Government's management of the crisis arguing that it was out of control [5]. That disease has caused dozens of deaths all over Europe though none in Spain (March 2005).

In 2000 the British nuclear submarine H.M.S. Tireless arrived at the Gibraltar harbor to have its nuclear reactor repaired. Aznar's affirmed that there was no risk for the population but Zapatero criticized it for his inability to force the British government to take the submarine to another harbor. After almost one year, the Tireless was repaired and left Gibraltar without having caused any known problem. [6] [7].

Zapatero was the main proponent of the "Pacto de las Libertades contra el Terrorismo" ("Pact of the liberties agains terrorism"), which was signed on December 8, 2000 [8]. In the first moment this pact was despised and rejected but now is considered a primal stone in the strategy agains the Basque terrorism in Spain not only by the Socialist Party by its subscribers. Zapatero's harder critics have defended that the Pact was originated by the wish of the People's Party and the Socialist Party to bury the Socialist ambiguity towards Nationalist Parties caused by the need the Socialist Party had of their votes.

In 2001, the People Party's Government decided to reform the University through the so-called LOU, a law that changed how the University System was organized. Zapatero opposed the reforms of the Spanish University and, later, that of the Secondary Education. The People's Party used his absolute majority in the Cortes to pass its reforms.

In 2002 the People's Party Government decided to reform the system of unemployment benefits as it thought that there were too many workers who being able to find a job preferred to continue receiving public money. This led to a redefinition of who were eligible for unemployment subsidies. Left-wing parties and trade unions considered that redefinition an unacceptable reduction of rights. Zapatero became the political leader of the opposition against the reform, which served him as his first important clash with Aznar's government. A General Strike was announced for June 20, 2002 (the first since Aznar won the election in 1996). According to official data (including the electrical power consumption and the number of worked man-days calculated by the Social Security) the turnout was lower than 15%, the lowest since the restoration of democracy (there were four General Strikes during Felipe González premiership). The unions and Zapatero disbelieved the data and considered the strike a resounding success. Whatever the result, some months later both the People's Party government and the trade unions signed an agreement that satisfied both parties.

In November 2002 the oil tanker Prestige suffered an accident in international waters near Galicia (a region in the Northwestern tip of Spain) that caused a grave oil slick. Zapatero blamed the PP Government's for it and criticized its management during and after the accident [9]. A Socialist MP in the Regional Assembly of Madrid, Antonio Carmona, declared soon after the catastrophe: "We have more than enough votes, if not, we will sink another boat". [10]

Another point of friction came from the scheme to transfer water from the River Ebro to other areas especially the irrigated areas in the South East of Spain, one of the richest agricultural regions in the world. That scheme received support from, among others, the 80% of the affected farmers and the Socialist regional governments of regions such as Extremadura, Andalusia or Castilla-La Mancha, which were, among others, the target of the scheme. Some Socialist politicians also supported it when they were members of the former Socialist government back in the 90s (e.g. José Borrell , the current leader of the European Spanish Socialist Group and president of the European Parliament [11]). The scheme was mainly contested by Zapatero, environmentalist groups, the Socialist regional government of Aragon and a part of the citizens of the areas from which water was to be transferred. The main criticisms against the scheme were the supposed damage to the environment and an argued real lack of sufficient water for all of the affected parties (the proponents of the scheme answered back that there was no risk of a serious environmental damage and that in 2003 14 times more water reached the sea than what was needed annually). (The scheme, finally approved by the Government, was canceled by Zapatero soon after becoming Prime Minister.)

On May 26, 2003 a Yakolev 42 plane carrying Spanish soldiers coming home from Afghanistan crashed in Turkey. The plane had been hired by an agency of the NATO and any other country could have used it. In Zapatero's view it presented clear dangers and he blamed Jose Maria Aznar and his goverment for neglecting aspects like the plane insurance or safety. After the 2004 March elections it was proven that there had been serious irregularities when recognizing the bodies with an important number of mistakes in the identifications. [12] [13]

Concerning the European Constitution, Zapatero criticized the People's Party Government decision of trying to preserve the distribution of power agreed by the Nice treaty (December 2000) in the new European Constitution. Zapatero thought that Spain should accept a lesser share of power.

Probably, the main point of friction between Aznar and Zapatero was Iraq. Opinion polls showed that a clear majority of Spanish voters were against the American led attack against Saddam's regime (near or surpassing 90%). Among them, Zapatero who considered illegal any action against Saddam Hussein's regime and the very concept of preemptive war. Zapatero never made public his own solutions to solve the several problems affecting Iraq after its defeat in Kuwait such as the fear caused by the suspected existence of WMD or the embargo affecting the Middle East country.

His first clash with the United States is related to his stance about the war. On October 12, 2003 (Spanish national holiday) he remained sat before the American flag carried by a representation of the American army taking part in the annual military parade. He declared afterwards that his action was a protest against the Iraq war and not an insult to the American people.

As an opposition leader Zapatero enjoyed the support of an important part of the Spanish media and, especially, those belonging to the PRISA group such as the daily newspaper "El País", the chain of radio stations that form the SER (Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión) or the TV channel Canal+. The PRISA group is controlled by Jesús de Polanco (one of the richest man in Spain) who has been linked to the Socialist Party in the past years. It has been claimed that he controls more media in Spain than Berlusconi in Italy. [14]

All of the opinion polls elaborated at the time foreseen bad results for Zapatero, as they always predicted a new victory for the People's Party.