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Spain's Popular Party striving not to be
María Dolores de Cospedal, a divorced single mother, has been named the secretary general of Spain's rightwing conservative opposition, the Popular party. The appointment of De Cospedal, 42, as number two to the party leader Mariano Rajoy is likely to anger Spain's Catholic church and rightwing elements within her own divided party.

The career politician, whose son was born by IVF treatment, is a supporter of so-called 'express' divorces and gay marriage, two controversial social reforms brought in by her political rivals, the ruling Socialists.
Remind me how she became a leader of the 'conservative' party ...
The move has been seen as an effort to move the party to the centre ground, after months of internal disputes between those on the right and centrists. Rajoy has already gone some way to attracting the female vote by naming another woman, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, 37, as the Popular party parliamentary spokesman, making her number three in the party.

Journalist Carlos E Cué, writing in the left-leaning Spanish daily El País, yesterday said: 'With De Cospedal, Rajoy has killed two birds with one stone. Naming her and Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría as number two and three in the party, it will be a counterweight to the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the first with more women than men.'

The new defence minister, Carme Chacón, 37, captured headlines not only for being the first woman to occupy this cabinet post, but being for pregnant at the same time.
Posted by: Steve White 2008-06-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=242276