José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero the election took place, winner George W. Bush did not return Zapatero's congratulation phone call, though the White House firmly denied that Bush's intention was to snub the Spanish prime minister. Meanwhile, Zapatero repeatedly insisted that Spain's relations with the United States were good. In spite of that, Zapatero acknowledged years after that the phone conversation held with President George W. Bush was "unforgettable" and that when told that the Spanish troops were leaving Iraq, the American president had told him "I am very disappointed in you" and that the conversation ended in a "very cold" manner. Zapatero later told
Pact of forgetting 1936. There have also been some notable references to the Civil War in the arts in recent years (for example, Javier Cercas' novel "Soldiers of Salamis"). In 2006, two-thirds of Spaniards favored a "fresh investigation into the war." The pact was given a legal basis in the Spanish 1977 Amnesty Law. The pact was challenged by the socialist government elected in 2004, which under prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero passed the Historical Memory Law. Among other measures, the Historical Memory Law rejected the legitimacy of laws passed and trials conducted by the Francoist regime. The Law repealed some Francoist