Cristina Garmendia Cristina Garmendia Dr. Cristina Garmendia y Mendizábal (San Sebastian, 1962) is a Spanish biologist and businesswoman. With no previous political career, she was appointed as Minister of Science and Innovation in April 2008 by the President of the Government of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. With a PhD in Biology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, before her election as a minister, she was the president of the Inbiomed Foundation and the Spanish Society of Bio enterprises. In 2000, she founded Genetrix., a biotechnology company and in 2008 YSIOS, a venture capital firm, specialized in health and biotechnology. She was
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero His style's defining word is "(buen) talante", roughly "pleasantness", "niceness" or "good disposition", which is in brisk and carefully chosen contrast with the more confrontational and brusque premiership style of previous Prime Minister José María Aznar. Similarly, Zapatero has been quoted to shy away from adopting unpopular measures, having a "habit of showering public money on any problem" and, in all, being "averse to tough decisions". One of the first measures he carried out as soon as he took office was to withdraw every Spanish soldier fighting in Iraq, calling the invasion of that country "an error based on lies".