Spanish press split on Iraq pullout

While some dailies welcome the decision by Spain's new Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, to bring troops home from Iraq, others ask if the move might prove overhasty.

Opinions also differ as to whether Mr Zapatero really was honouring his election pledge.

"We think the prime minister's decision is not only correct, but also necessary, bearing in mind the worsening of security in the Shia zone, where the revolt instigated by Moqtada Sadr and the radical clerics constitutes a threat to Spanish forces," says El Mundo.

Above all, the paper goes on, the decision shows he is a "leader of his word, who keeps his promises".

Another Madrid daily, El Pais, agrees.

"The message is unequivocal: the socialist leader is beginning governing by keeping his word, in this case the one he gave to the Spanish people over a year ago."

Flagrant breach

But ABC, in its editorial, says the reverse is true: the prime minister did not keep his word to the letter, because in effect he jumped the gun.

"Rodriguez Zapatero's first decision as prime minister was a flagrant breach of his word and of his election programme," the paper argues.

It recalls that his pledge was to repatriate Spanish troops - but only if the UN Security Council had not approved a resolution to take control of the situation in Iraq by 30 June.

"The UN was a simple pretext in Zapatero's line," the paper complains.

"His decision represents, above all, a personal stunt designed in reality to protect his government from any possibility of being associated with the presence in Iraq, like a fresh terrorist attack or new casualties in the Spanish contingent."

The paper says the repatriation will mean a new foreign policy which, instead of being coordinated with the international community, will have to be "improvised according to the reactions it causes".

This, it goes on, will take the country "backwards into a diplomatic instability it had in recent years overcome".

Crossroads

The prime minister has fulfilled a promise on which he unnecessarily staked his honour, and our country is once again absent from a great historical crossroads for the West La Razon

La Razon also focuses on the speed with which Mr Zapatero acted.

"It is not too difficult to understand the reasons for this haste, one of which, it is true, is to keep his main election promise," the paper says.

But at the same time it worries about the long-term implications.

"While it is easy to probe Rodriguez Zapatero's motives, it is not so easy when one tries to penetrate the consequences which the breaking of an alliance agreement with the USA and Great Britain, and with the other countries committed to the Iraqi transition, may have for us," the paper says.

The paper regrets that the socialist leader is missing an opportunity to help Iraqis.

"The prime minister has fulfilled a promise on which he unnecessarily staked his honour, and our country is once again absent from a great historical crossroads for the West," it argues.

One paper, El Mundo, has a message of reconciliation with the former ruling Popular Party (PP), which initially sent soldiers to Iraq.

"The joy of a large sector of the population on hearing the good news is understandable," the paper says.

"But it would be irresponsible to encourage... hostility towards the PP, which has already paid politically for the mistake of sending the troops."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.