A spring clean

By Jason Moore SPRING must be in the air...Spanish Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero shuffled his pack yesterday and one of the people losing their job was Defence Minister Jose Bono. Bono has been a key player in the Spanish government although I suspect that sometimes his views do not match those of Zapatero. Bono is the John Prescott of Spanish politics; tough talking and sometimes not too politically correct. He has been a critic of greater home rule for the Basque Country and Cataluña and his exit has come as no real surprise. However, Bono is a loss for the Spanish government. He was one of the key architects of the decision to pull Spanish troops back from Iraq. He also sacked one of Spain's key generals who said in a speech that the army may have to intervene if they thought that a break-up of Spain was possible in a clear reference to the ongoing political debate over greater rule for Cataluña. There is talk that Bono wanted to leave his post for family reasons. I sincerely doubt it; I think Zapatero was concerned that his straight-talking defence minister could be a rather loose canon at a criticial time when the debate over Cataluña and the Basque Country was continuing. Zapatero also knows that his popularity in the polls has fallen with the opposition Partido Popular making some inroads into his once commanding lead.