José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero because he was sure of his victory after only one ballot and he apparently did not want to humiliate his adversary. After being elected Secretary General, he was congratulated by Lionel Jospin (then the Prime Minister of France), Gerhard Schröder (Chancellor of Germany) and José María Aznar. He moved to Madrid with his family that year. As a Congressman he had lived from Monday to Thursday in Madrid and the rest of the time in León. This was the period when Zapatero was appointed as Secretary General of the PSOE in 2000 until he became Prime Minister of Spain on
Carme Chacón Carme Chacón Carme Maria Chacón Piqueras (; March 13, 1971April 9, 2017) was a Spanish lawyer, lecturer and politician who was Minister of Defence from 2008 to 2011 in the cabinet led by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Member of Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) since 1994, she was elected member of the Parliament of Catalonia and Vice President of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, the lower house in the Spanish Parliament. In 2007, she entered the cabinet led by Spanish Prime Minister José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero as Minister of Housing. A year later, she became the first