Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04MADRID881
2004-03-15 14:43:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Madrid
Cable title:  

SPANISH FOREIGN POLICY UNDER NEW SOCIALIST

Tags:  PREL PGOV SP NATO 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MADRID 000881 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/WE
NSC FOR FRIED AND VOLKER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2014
TAGS: PREL PGOV SP NATO
SUBJECT: SPANISH FOREIGN POLICY UNDER NEW SOCIALIST
GOVERNMENT

REF: 03 MADRID 4496

Classified By: Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Carol J. Urban,
reasons 1.4(B) and (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MADRID 000881

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/WE
NSC FOR FRIED AND VOLKER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2014
TAGS: PREL PGOV SP NATO
SUBJECT: SPANISH FOREIGN POLICY UNDER NEW SOCIALIST
GOVERNMENT

REF: 03 MADRID 4496

Classified By: Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Carol J. Urban,
reasons 1.4(B) and (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Well before the March 14 general
elections, Socialist Workers' Party of Spain (PSOE) leader
Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero made clear that if elected he
would refocus Spanish foreign policy away from the primacy of
the transatlantic link and toward Spain,s traditional EU
partners such as France and Germany. On Iraq, Zapatero has
long said that he would withdraw Spanish troops by June 30 if
they were not under what he perceived to be an adequate UN
mandate. He reiterated March 15, the day after he became
President-elect, that Spanish troops would withdraw from Iraq
before the June European Parliamentary elections if the
international situation regarding Iraq had not changed.
Since the March 11 attacks and the March 14 elections,
Zapatero has said that his highest priority would be to
continue the fight against terrorism. During the campaign,
on March 4, Zapatero had announced that he would ask former
EU Middle East envoy and veteran Spanish diplomat Miguel
Angel Moratinos to serve as his foreign minister; Moratinos
in recent speeches has echoed Zapatero,s foreign policy
approach, as has PSOE,s foreign policy spokesman in
parliament, Manuel Marin. (Zapatero has not confirmed
Moratinos' appointment; Marin is another possible candidate
for foreign minister. His views are exactly the same as
those of Zapatero and Moratinos.) Although Spain under the
Socialists will remain an ally of the U.S., Zapatero will
distance Spain from the very close relations the U.S. enjoyed
under the Aznar government. End summary.

--------------
"Spain in Europe and With Europe"
--------------


2. (C) Zapatero has stated on numerous occasions that if he
were to become President, he would refocus Spain's foreign
policy on its relations with Europe in the EU. After winning
the March 14 election, Zapatero said one of his foreign
policy priorities would be to regain the "confidence of
European governments in Spain as a reliable partner" in EU
integration. Moratinos echoed this in a March 10 speech,

saying PSOE's "absolute priority" in foreign policy would be
to recover the "weight and influence" it lost in the EU under
Aznar.


3. (C) Within this priority, a primary goal will be to reach
consensus on a new European constitution. Moratinos stated
that Spain's objective should be to "integrate and construct"
Europe, not separate it and block agreements (referring to
Aznar's refusal to agree to an EU constitution that diluted
Spain's voting weight). A Socialist government, said
Moratinos, would work to reach agreement on an EU
constitution by May 1, or at the latest by year's end. Spain
should return from the "periphery" of the EU and instead form
part of the "nucleus" of countries seeking to construct the
EU.

-------------- --------------
U.S. Relations: "Respect and Friendship, Not Submission"
-------------- --------------


4. (C) Zapatero has pledged to conduct a transatlantic
dialog based on "respect and friendship, not submission"
(reftel). PSOE officials for some time have argued that
President Aznar deferred inordinately to the United States.
Moratinos repeated Zapatero's view March 10 and advocated a
new strategic alliance with the U.S. aimed at ensuring "just
globalization," and grounded in the "equal sovereignty" of
both countries. Graphically, Moratinos said a Zapatero
government would cut Spain out of the photo of the "Trio of
the Azores" (referring to last year's meeting in the Azores
of Bush, Aznar and Blair) and return Spain to the political
axis of the EU.

-------------- --------------
Iraq: Spanish Troops Recalled Unless UN in Control
-------------- --------------


5. (C) Before the election Zapatero called the Iraq war
"illegal" and "immoral." He promised to bring Spanish troops
home unless the UN was in control in Iraq by June 30 (he was
unclear about what kind of UN control was necessary, but at a
minimum he would want a UNSC resolution authorizing troop
presence). He and PSOE party operatives have reiterated this
pledge since winning the election; on March 15 Zapatero said
Spanish troops would leave Iraq before the European
Parliamentary elections in June if the "international
situation" regarding troop presence does not change. And
in his March 10 speech, Moratinos said Spain's participation
in the Iraq war and the stationing of its troops there
afterward exemplified the "rupture" of the Spanish model of
foreign policy by consensus. He said Spain's troops would
remain in Iraq only if the international community gives the
UN the authority necessary to guide Iraq to a new government
freely elected by Iraqis. More broadly, Moratinos said
Spain's role in the Iraq war damaged Spain's relations with
Arab countries, and a Socialist government would work to
repair those relations.


6. (C) It is possible the new PSOE government will feel
substantial pressure from the Spanish public to bring the
troops home after June 30 regardless of whether there is a
new UN mandate. Socialist successes in the March 14
elections were due in large part to the public's frustration
with PP Iraq policy and fear that Spain,s support for the
coalition made it a target of terrorists.

--------------
Closer Relations with Latin America
--------------


7. (SBU) Moratinos has also said the Aznar government
subordinated Spanish relations with Latin America to its
relations with the U.S. Latin America, stated Moratinos, is
Spain's natural foreign policy partner. Relations with Latin
America should be conducted separately from relations with
the U.S., to the extent possible.

--------------
A Look At Moratinos
--------------


8. (SBU) Moratinos, 52 years old, is a more than 30-year
veteran of the diplomatic service. He is also a lawyer.
Among other posts he has served in the former Yugoslavia and
Morocco, and was Spain's Ambassador to Israel for
approximately six months in 1996. In December 1996, the EU
named Moratinos its Special Representative for the Middle
East Peace Process, a position he held until June 2003.
Nearly all of his domestic assignments were connected to
northern Africa or the Arab world. A fluent English speaker,
Moratinos is married to the French Dominique Maunac. They
have three children.

--------------
Comment
--------------


9. (C) Particularly in the wake of the March 11 attacks,
Spaniards will expect Zapatero to distance Spain rapidly from
the close relations Aznar cultivated with the Bush
Administration. Zapatero owes his victory to the Spanish
reaction to those attacks; many Spaniards blame the attacks
on Aznar's pro-U.S. policy on Afghanistan and Iraq.
Nonetheless, before the March 14 election, party insiders
took pains to convince us that a Zapatero government would
build and maintain strong, positive relations with the U.S.,
despite Zapatero's campaign rhetoric. We believe that a
PSOE government would want to maintain positive ties with the
US and remind us that US-Spain relations were excellent under
12 years of PSOE government in the late 1970,s-1980,s.
But at least in the short term, Zapatero will feel pressure
to back away from close cooperation with the U.S. on Iraq,
and may also feel the need to demonstrate clearly to the
Spanish electorate he will not kow-tow to the U.S., as he
claims Aznar did.

ARGYROS