The boy from León

The man in the prime-ministerial office must be satisfied, at least, about the end of ETA, as he waits out his final days in power. Reformist politicians such as Zapatero are viewed with hostility by much of the society they propose to change. Besides, his individualism, asceticism, reserve and good manners are almost an insult to those who dominate the Spanish political scene. His strong convictions invited mockery from the cynical mindset that enjoys such acceptance in the public life of Spain. His progressive culture drew boos from the extreme right.

Since Suárez in the early 1980s, no prime minister has been so fiercely attacked. Previously a deputy, member of parliamentary committees and professor of law, he was called inexpert, callow and unprepared. Considering the previous careers of other prime ministers, this was grossly unjust. The attacks came particularly from the right-wing media machinery built in the days of Aznar.

Zapatero represented a new generation in his party. But though surrounded by people of his own age, he was something of a loner. He kept his distance from those around him, which created misunderstanding when, at the end, a fight broke out for power within the party.

Zapatero did not ask for recognition from Spain's social-democratic intellectual establishment, nor was any recognition ever given. He himself is something of an intellectual; but an intellectual politician who recognizes only the authority that comes from the vote. "The boy from León" - that was the vaguely patronizing term with which they looked down their noses at him, a parvenu who was a flash in the pan. But he was here to stay.

The upside of his record includes an unthought-of expansion of human rights, from homosexual marriage to a modern abortion law; certain well-conceived extensions of the welfare state; and, of course, the declared end of ETA. On the downside, the failure of his attempt to find an honored place for the losers of the Civil War; and to find a place for Euskadi and Catalonia in a common Spanish political structure. To interpret the Spanish Constitution in a federal sense, you need federalists - and in these parts they are few and far between. Those who boycotted the Historical Memory Law also boycotted "plural Spain."

But after his first legislature came the crisis, a black hole that sucked everything into it, including the memory of the first legislature. Perhaps his militant, enthusiastic vision of Spain prevented him from recognizing the warning signs. They say he was slow to react, ignoring the fact that all other heads of government did the same.

What a bitter joke, to hear those who created the real-estate bubble, an Aznar government that fomented sprawl development all over the face of Spain, blaming Zapatero for the consequences. He recently said he regretted not having punctured the bubble in time - but how could he have? No government would have ventured to bell that cat: producing unemployment, protest from the unions, the banks, the opposition. Let's be honest: some created the bubble, but we all helped to inflate it. Not so long ago we were wailing about young people who could not afford to take on a mortgage. We lay our own sins on the scapegoat, Zapatero, so he can bear them off into the desert.

A decent, courageous man is leaving the political scene. Perhaps, so we can better understand his U-turn in recent times, he might like to offer us an explanation of what he saw on that night of May 9, 2010. If he saw the limits of our political reality, we need to know them, now that the walls of the world we lived in are crumbling. The left needs this, to imagine a future that is more just, but free of childishness; and so does the Spanish public as a whole.