the essential dividing line in european perceptions on iraq ran between france and germany on one hand, and britain, poland and spain on the other. smaller neutral countries then tended to align with france and germany, and a number of new member states were with the uk, poland and spain.in mid-2004, however, following josé maría aznar's defeat in elections by the spanish socialist workers' party of josé luis rodríguez zapatero, spain effectively crossed over to the other camp. zapatero announced his intention of withdrawing his country's forces from iraq. spain had committed a force of 1,400 troops. zapatero, demonstrating his fealty to the french view of events in iraq, initially stated that he might be willing to see spanish forces stay as part of a un-led solution in iraq. since this was clearly not on the horizon, he ordered their withdrawal, which began on april 20, 2004, and was completed within six weeks.