Spain's new Defence Minister Jose Bono declined a top military medal on Wednesday for co-ordinating the withdrawal of troops from Iraq after a storm of protest from opposition politicians who said it was unmerited.
Spain's Socialist government, which took office in April, completed the withdrawal of some 1,400 troops last month without casualties, fulfilling a campaign promise.
"In declining the Grand Cross for Military Merit, I emphasise there is another medal, the best decoration this government can wear, and that is the gratitude of many Spaniards for withdrawing troops from Iraq, where they should never have been," said Bono in a statement.
He was awarded the medal at last Friday's cabinet meeting.
The minister's proposed decoration after only six weeks in the job provoked criticism from across the political spectrum, outside the ruling Socialist party.
"It is neither logical nor normal for the government to award itself a decoration," Angel Perez, a spokesman for a coalition of the Green Party and the United Left, was quoted as saying in the Spanish press.
The parliamentary spokesman for the Basque Nationalist Party, Inaki Anasagasti, described the decoration as "frivolous and worthy of a Third World country".
The pullout caused consternation in Washington but was overwhelmingly popular in Spain, where millions of citizens had protested against the previous government's support for the US-led war.
Insurgents killed 11 Spanish troops during their tour of duty in Iraq.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero praised Bono's decision to decline the medal.
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