US embassy cable - 04MADRID1200

UNCLAS MADRID 001200 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, SP, Spanish Election March 2004 
SUBJECT: INVESTITURE SCHEDULE FOR SPAIN'S NEW SOCIALIST 
GOVERNMENT 
 
REF: A. MADRID 1072 
 
     B. MADRID 900 
 
1. Summary.  Spain's Congress of Deputies is slated to begin 
the investiture sessions to install the new Socialist 
government on April 15.  Depending on whether the Socialist 
leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, receives an absolute 
majority or not on the first vote, he could be sworn in as 
President of the Government as early as April 17.  Zapatero's 
government likely will be sworn in and functioning on April 
19, and he is expected to hold his first cabinet meeting a 
day or two thereafter.  The formal opening session of the new 
Congress, presided over by the King, is then expected to take 
place on April 22.  End summary. 
 
2. The Congress of Deputies is scheduled to begin the 
investiture sessions to install the new President of the 
Government on April 15.  The sessions will include statements 
from all parliamentary groups, with speeches slated to 
continue into April 16.  At the conclusion of the group 
speeches on April 16, the Congress will vote on the proposed 
candidate, Socialist Party leader Jose Luis Rodriguez 
Zapatero.  If his candidacy wins with an absolute majority, 
Zapatero should be sworn in as President of the Government in 
front of the King on Saturday, April 17.  At that time, he 
would officially inform the King of the members of his 
Cabinet. 
 
3.  If Zapatero does not receive an absolute majority on the 
April 16 vote, a second voting session would be held on April 
18.  For the second round of voting, Zapatero would only need 
a simple majority to be invested.  His swearing in before the 
King would then be held late on April 18 or on Monday, April 
19. 
 
4. In either voting scenario, the King is expected to convene 
the Solemn Opening Session of the new Legislature on April 
22, at which point the new Socialist majority will begin to 
govern.  Between the swearing-in ceremony and the Solemn 
Opening Session of Congress, Zapatero's ministers will have 
their names published in the Official State Bulletin, swear 
allegiance to the Constitution, and take possession of their 
Ministries on April 19. 
 
5. The Socialist Party's new Parliamentary spokesman, Alfredo 
Perez Rubalcaba, stated yesterday that he believed Zapatero 
would receive an absolute majority on the first round of 
voting.  Although the Socialists only have firm commitments 
from the United Left party and the Aragon regional party, 
Rubalcaba expected to also receive first-round support from 
the ERC (leftist Catalan nationalists), the Canaries 
Coalition and the BNG (Galician nationalists).  This would 
give the Socialists more than the 176 votes required for an 
absolute majority. 
MANZANARES