2007 Morocco–Spain diplomatic conflict out protests in Tetuan, as well as front of the border with Ceuta and Melilla. Moroccan authority also discontinued high-level visits of Spanish authorities to their country. Finally, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, Miguel Angel Moratinos, visited Rabat to meet his Moroccan counterpart, Taib Fassi Fihri on January 3, 2008, and presented him a personal letter from Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to King Mohamed VI, which advocated for closer relations between both countries. Four days later, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry announced the return of its ambassador to Madrid, thus terminating the conflict. On October 30, the
Cristina Garmendia innovation. On April 11, 2008 the president of the Spanish Government, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, elected Cristina Garmendia as holder of a new ministry, Minister of Science and Innovation, which was going to be created during the IX term of office. The Ministry of Science and Innovation for the first time drew together all the Government’s capacities and bodies to promote R&D, including Public Research Bodies, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI). The Ministry was created with the mandate to fully harness the economic potential the scientific capacity of the country