José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero On 12 October 2003, during the Fiesta Nacional de España military parade held in Madrid, then opposition leader and presidential candidate Zapatero remained seated as a U.S. Marine Corps honour guard carrying the American flag walked past Zapatero and other VIPs. Everybody else stood as with the rest of the foreign guest armies representations. He declared afterwards that his action was a protest against the war and certainly not intended as an insult to the American people. Later on, during an official visit to Tunisia shortly after Zapatero was elected, he asked all of the countries with troops in Iraq
Manuel Chaves González the PSOE, together with Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra and José Bono, who were also autonomous presidents. After the defeat of his party in the general election of 12 March 2000, after which Joaquín Almunia resigned as General Secretary of the party, Manuel took charge of the Political Commission. He organized the 35th Congress of the PSOE, which elected José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as General Secretary. In April 2009, Prime Minister Zapatero designated Chaves as Third Vice President of the Government and Minister of Territorial Policy (the former Ministry of Public Administrations). Manuel Chaves González Manuel Chaves González (born 7 July