MADRID, April 18 (UPI) -- Political history was made in Spain Sunday when the new socialist cabinet of eight men and eight women ministers was sworn in before King Juan Carlos I.
The composition of the cabinet fulfills Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's campaign promise to have a gender balanced government for the first time in Spain. Sweden, however, has had an equal number of men and women in successive ministerial cabinets for a decade.
Zapatero himself was sworn in Saturday during a separate ceremony in the presence of outgoing prime minister Jose Maria Aznar. The Spanish Socialist Workers Party overwhelmingly defeated Arnar's Popular Party in the March 14 general elections, three days after terrorist bomb attacks at three Madrid commuter railway stations claimed more than 190 lives.
A woman holds the most senior cabinet post after Zapatero. She is First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de La Vega. Among the ministries also headed by women are Housing, Health, Public Works, and Culture.
