Word: madrid
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...detailed presidential debate confirmed what most analysts already expected: RodrÃguez Zapatero will be reelected. But more important than better statistics, he has timing on his side, just like the Socialists did when the terrorist attacks in Madrid almost four years ago helped propel them to power...
...Catholic Church, the dramatic increase in Spain's divorce rate underlines the moral threat it perceives from Zapatero's government. At a December rally in Madrid to "defend the Christian family," ? Cardinal Augustín ? García-Gasco lambasted Socialist initiatives, ? saying, "The culture of radical laicism ? leads to nothing but despair along the road of ? abortion and express divorce." Benigno Blanco, president of the Spanish Forum for the Family, agrees: "The reform has transformed the marriage contract into trash. It's banalized marriage...
Gracia Sánchez has always been part of a large family. The oldest of eight siblings, she is now a mother of four, from José Maria, 13, to Quique, 15 months. "We're not standard," she says with a laugh, sitting in her central Madrid living room as her two middle ones, Jacobo, 9, and Gracita, 7, carry in a plate of home-baked cookies. "People at work say, 'There's no way you have four kids!' " Her half-day job as a youth counselor allows her to drop off the kids at school and pick them...
...quantify. Still, few doubt that widening prosperity was a necessary precondition for Zapatero's momentous changes to Spain's social legislation. In the wake of his surprising 2004 victory - which many attributed to the incumbent Popular Party government's mishandling of the aftermath of the March 11, 2004, Madrid bombings - the little-known Socialist leader made waves with his announcement of an immediate withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. But the sweeping agenda of progressive social policy is what has truly marked Zapatero's term. He pushed through major women's-rights legislation, including parity in electoral lists, equal...
...marriage. "We want to make people understand that according to human nature, it is man and woman who are made for each other and can give humanity a future," he told reporters. "The family is a unique institution in God's plan." Spanish bishops have organized huge rallies in Madrid to protest Zapatero's new laws, but polls continue to show that the reforms have broad support. Indeed, after spending centuries gazing lovingly across the Mediterranean to its stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, the Holy See now views Spain as a sad example of how the West was lost...