Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Tuesday that the European Union was a greater priority for his government than the United States because of the contribution of EU members to the development of modern, democratic Spain.
"First comes Europe, then our historic ties with Latin America and the Mediterranean, and after that come trans-Atlantic relations," he said in an interview with Radio Cope that articulated an opposite set of priorities to those of his conservative predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar.
Zapatero, leader of the Socialist Party, recalled that EU members, "in particular France and Germany, played a decisive role in helping our transition to democracy" after the death in 1975 of the military dictator Francisco Franco, who had ruled Spain since the end of the civil war in 1939.
The EU "played an essential part in our development, our progress and our well-being," Zapatero said. "In recent years, it has added one percent to our gross domestic product, enabling us to build roads, dams and schools and to train our workforce," he added.
"Irrespective of who is in power in Paris, Berlin or other European capitals, it is natural for us to have the best possible relations with those countries with which we have built economic and monetary union, share a single currency and are going to build a common defence system."
France is currently led by President Jacques Chirac, a conservative, and Germany by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a Social Democrat, the two leading opponents of the US-led war in Iraq, which Aznar supported.