Zapatero government Zapatero government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero formed the Zapatero government on 18 April 2004 after being nominated by King Juan Carlos I to form a government as a result of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party's victory at the 2004 general election. Zapatero was nominated again after the 2008 general election to form a new cabinet for a second term in office. The first Zapatero government was the government of Spain from 18 April 2004 to 14 April 2008, a total of days, or . Zapatero was elected Prime Minister by the Congress of Deputies on 16 April and was sworn
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to be illegal and was opposed to the very concept of preemptive war. On 26 May 2003 a Yakovlev Yak-42 plane carrying Spanish soldiers home from Afghanistan crashed in Turkey. The plane had been hired by an agency of NATO. Zapatero blamed Aznar and his government for neglecting aspects like the plane insurance or safety. Further, Aznar had rejected calls for a full inquiry into the crash. After the 2004 March elections it was proven that there had been serious irregularities in the identification of the corpses resulting in a high number of mistakes. Concerning the European Constitution, Zapatero criticized