US embassy cable - 04MADRID881

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. 
 
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Comment 
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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