The Times has a rather fawning profile of Zap, but it does include a few basic facts on the man that you may not have known about. The piece makes the point that Zap has avoided screwing up the economy, for which we have to give him some credit. Things ain't perfect, but he has cut some corporate taxes and has generally avoided interfering too much in the business world. Spain's two chief economic concerns are the trade deficit and inflation, both of which are fueled by increased domestic demand, meaning that people have money to spend and things to spend it on, and neither of which is horribly bad.

The piece comes right out and calls Zap an "accidental prime minister," which he is, but it's not something the Spanish press ever says. There is a meme propagated by the illustrated and enlightened among us, a group which includes many hacks and flacks employed by Spain's media corporations, saying that the Spanish people voted against the PP because they were fed up with Aznar's policies. False. The Spanish people voted against the PP because the majority thought that Aznar's involvement in Iraq was responsible for the Madrid bombings, and preferred to cut and run. No bombings, no Zap as prime minister.