Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- Embattled Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, trailing in the polls and squeezed by an economic downturn, announced a broad cabinet shuffle on Wednesday, bringing in new deputy prime minister and a new foreign minister.
Speaking on national television from the prime minister's compound here, Zapatero said the new first deputy prime minister will be Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, the interior minister who will also retain that post.
He will replace Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who has been first deputy prime minister since Zapatero was first elected in 2004.
Perez Rubalcaba, considered an effective leader of the government and police campaign against the armed Basque separatist group ETA, is no stranger to the prime minister's sprawling compound on the western outskirts of Madrid. He worked there years ago as an aide to then Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez.
Zapatero also confirmed that Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, also part of Zapatero's team since 2004, will be replaced by longtime Zapatero aide Trinidad Jimenez, currently health minister.
"This is the government for reforms and economic recovery and employment," Zapatero said, officially announcing the shakeup that caught most of Spain by surprise. Spanish media earlier Wednesday began reporting the expected changes.
Spain's deep economic crisis, its slow recovery and 20 percent unemployment rate have battered Zapatero, now in his second term. He is far behind the conservative opposition candidate in the polls. Elections must be held no later than 2012.
Zapatero has been under pressure from many Socialist party leaders to conduct a major cabinet shuffle. These calls intensified after Zapatero's traditional allies - Spain's two main trade unions - staged a national strike on September 29 to protest the government's labor reforms and austerity measures to combat the economic crisis.
CNN
