About José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (Spanish: [xoseˈlwis roˈðɾiɣeθ θapaˈteɾo]; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On 2 April 2011 he announced he would not stand for re-election in the 2011 general election and left office on 21 December 2011. Among the main actions taken by the Zapatero administration were the withdrawal of Spanish troops from the Iraq war, the increase of Spanish troops in Afghanistan; the idea of an Alliance of Civilizations; the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Spain; reform of abortion law; a peace negotiation attempt with ETA; the end of ETA terrorism; increase of tobacco restrictions; and the reform of various autonomous statutes, particularly the Statute of Catalonia. He became the first former Spanish prime minister to be charged when, on 19 May 2026, the National Court charged him with money laundering and membership of a criminal organisation in connection with an investigation into the alleged laundering of the €53 million public bailout that the second government of Pedro Sánchez provided to the airline Plus Ultra in 2021. == Biography == === Family background and early life === José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was born in Valladolid, Castile and León, to Juan Rodríguez y García-Lozano (born 1928), a lawyer, and María de la Purificación Zapatero Valero (1927–2000). He grew up in León, where his family originated. His paternal grandfather, Juan Rodríguez y Lozano (1893–1936), was a captain in the Spanish Republican Army; he was executed by Francisco Franco's Nationalist forces a month into the Spanish Civil War, for refusing to fight with them. His whereabouts were revealed by fascists in Valladolid. His maternal grandfather, Faustino Valentín Zapatero Ballesteros (1899–1978), was a paediatrician and middle class liberal.
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