Profile: Spain's new prime minister is taking power at a time of crisis, but he has already impressed critics who thought he'd be too mild for the job, writes Paddy Woodworth.
On the day he got married, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero cancelled his honeymoon trip to Paris because of an internal crisis in his political party. His devoted wife, Sonsoles Espinosa, had to make do with a short break in Seville, with her bridegroom's attentions split between her charms and his political ambitions.
There are many purely political stories about Zapatero's legendary negotiating skills, but one suspects that this talent was never so much in demand as in those first post-nuptial days and nights. The fact that the couple are not only still together but, by all accounts, sharing something approaching domestic bliss, is a tribute to his gift for conciliation and his extraordinary powers of attraction.
His wife must also have remarkable negotiating skills because, to the despair of his publicity team, she will not participate in election campaigns and refuses to allow the press to photograph their two daughters, Laura (10) and Alba (8).
Sonsoles is now a music teacher and soprano, but the couple met when they were both studying law in the northern Castilian city of León. It was one of democratic Spain's darkest hours. Lt Col Antonio Tejero had just held the Spanish parliament at gunpoint, under the glare of the world's television cameras, during the swearing-in of a new prime minister.
Zapatero, already a bright spark in the local Socialist Party (PSOE), organised a demonstration for democracy, and Sonsoles came along. Like Zapatero's character, their romance seems to have been warm but not wild. The most outrageous thing their friends can remember about them is that they once sat on the floor of a disco to drink a beer together.
Today, Zapatero drinks only Coca-Cola, and shows little interest in Spain's majority religion - the worship of good food. His hobbies are reading Latin American literature, hill-walking and fishing. He is described as having a Nordic or Anglo-Saxon temperament, making Tony Blair seem Latin by comparison. His wife says the only time she has seen him cry was when his mother died. He only loses his temper with his daughters, to whom he is devoted, and never with his political adversaries.
So how has this man become prime minister of one of Europe's quintessentially Mediterranean countries? He was born in another Castilian city, Valladollid, in August 1960. His father, to whom he remains deeply attached, became director of legal services on León City Council, but he was deeply opposed to the Franco dictatorship, which controlled all public life in Spain at the time. His own father, Juan Rodríguez, had been shot for his opposition to Franco's uprising. He left a remarkable written testament to his family.
In this document he proclaims his innocence but also pardons his executioners and prays for peace and social progress in Spain. The young Zapatero was very impressed by this message of conciliation in a deeply divided country.
His second big influence was Felipe González. His father brought Zapatero, aged 16, to a meeting in León to hear the oratory of this hugely charismatic young leader of the PSOE. González went on to become Spain's prime minister from 1982 to 1996.
According to many sources, Zapatero idolised González, modelled himself on him, and dreamed of becoming prime minister himself, from the moment he heard him speak.
This attachment to the PSOE's last successful leader is more than a little problematic for those who hope Zapatero will bring a breath of clean fresh air to Spanish politics. González achieved a great deal in modernising Spain but his administrations were tainted by rampant corruption and the practice of murderous and politically disastrous state terrorism against ETA. Their authoritarian style had something in common with that of the conservative government Zapatero has just replaced.
Zapatero became Spain's youngest MP, at the age of 26, about halfway through the González period. He has never spoken out publicly against the abuses committed by the party at that time, though he has done so in private.
A reformist minister who served under González, and knows Zapatero well, told The Irish Times this week that the new man would be well able to get out of his predecessor's shadow: "He likes him and respects him but he does not model himself on him - that's been greatly exaggerated. He has been a young leader in a party with an immensely powerful old guard, and he had to prove himself politically before they would accept his authority. He would not have got where he is today by criticising González but after this victory he will be able to put his own stamp on the party."
This old guard of party "barons" certainly regarded Zapatero as too weak, possibly just too nice, to lead the party to victory when he became general secretary in 2000. He came in just seven votes ahead of one of their number, José Bono. The conservative Partido Popular (PP) had just won its second election, this time with an absolute majority, and the PSOE was looking decidedly washed up.
Zapatero performed well in parliament, however. He prepared his attacks on the PP administration meticulously, delivered them coolly, and began to hit home. He also showed a remarkable capacity to persuade a sceptical government to sign up to a joint policy on terrorism, though he has often seemed a prisoner of PP policies in this area. In fact, while everyone agrees he has firm convictions, no one seems quite sure what they are.
When a series of internal crises wracked the PSOE last year, the charges of weakness came back to haunt him. Pejorative nicknames such as "Bambi" and "little slippers" (a pun on his name) were attached to him by the barons.
But he found his stride in his measured but potent opposition to the Iraq war. Hewould probably have preferred to improve the PSOE position in last Sunday's poll, but not actually win, so that he could gain more experience as opposition leader.
Tragic and bizarre events, however, have handed him the leadership of his country at a most difficult time. He has taken up the mantle with authority and statesmanship, impressing even his critics by taking hard decisions firmly and fast.
"Bambi has put his boots on," one grudgingly admiring right-wing newspaper stated this week. But nobody is quite sure in which direction this most inscrutable man is now going to walk.
The Zapatero File
Who is he?
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
Why is he in the news?
He has just become prime minister of Spain, against all expectations, and has said he will withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq unless the UN is put in charge there.
Most appealing characteristic.
Discreet charm which even his enemies find irresistible.
Most likely to say.
I hear what you're saying.
Least likely to say.
I think you're totally wrong.