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
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to withdraw their soldiers. This declaration moved Bush to send a letter expressing discontent to the Spanish premier. American troops were subsequently instructed to not take part during the traditional military parade on the Spanish national holiday in 2004 and in 2005, something which they used to, as both the Spanish and American armies –being NATO allies– are part of joint humanitarian missions; American troops returned to the military parade in 2006; this time Zapatero, being the Spanish premier, stood. Zapatero publicly stated his support for John Kerry as a candidate running in the U.S. Presidential election in 2004. After