Spain’s junior defense minister arrives

ALI DIA/AFP/Getty Images Spain’s defense minister Carme Chacón, who was seven months pregnant when she was appointed, gave birth today to a 6-pound baby boy. The interior minister has temporarily taken over her portfolio, but it seems unlikely that she will take the full four-month maternity leave afforded to her by Spanish law. Photos of ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
594970_080520_chacon_808865002.jpg
594970_080520_chacon_808865002.jpg

ALI DIA/AFP/Getty Images

ALI DIA/AFP/Getty Images

Spain’s defense minister Carme Chacón, who was seven months pregnant when she was appointed, gave birth today to a 6-pound baby boy. The interior minister has temporarily taken over her portfolio, but it seems unlikely that she will take the full four-month maternity leave afforded to her by Spanish law. Photos of the pregnant Chacón touring military bases in Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Bosnia in recent weeks have become visual emblems of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s push for gender equality in government.

I hope Silvio Berlusconi at least sent a card. 

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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