Thousands protest in Madrid against Socialists
Wed 17 March, 2004 16:48
By Estelle Shirbon
MADRID (Reuters) - Several thousand protesters have taken to the streets of Madrid to back outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and accuse the Socialists of exploiting the train bombings to win power.
"The elections were a robbery," said high school student Maria Garcia, wearing stickers of Aznar's Popular Party (PP) on her jacket, at the protest outside party headquarters on Wednesday.
"The Socialist party has exploited the subject of terrorism so that the PP would lose, after saying throughout the campaign that we shouldn't use terrorism for political purposes."
The PP had looked set to win Sunday's poll, in part due to its tough stance against Basque separatist group ETA. But Thursday's bombings, which killed 201 people, changed that.
First, the government drew ire for its over-hasty blaming of ETA. Then, as suspicions of al Qaeda involvement grew, the PP suffered from perceptions it had some responsibility by sending Spanish troops to Iraq despite massive public opposition.
Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero refrained from commenting on the election-eve controversy.
But thousands of Spaniards, including many Socialist supporters, poured onto the streets to denounce the PP on Saturday -- a day that had been supposed to be "a day of reflection" prior to voting.
That formed the charged context for Zapatero's surprise win.
At Wednesday's protest, banners read "Zapatero: president ...of al Qaeda" and some protesters shouted "Zapatero is Terrorism," reflecting a view among many PP supporters that Zapatero would be too soft.
"All of us in the PP want to support Aznar after the totally unjustified insults he has received," said estate agency owner Cristina Maestre, 58, at the protest.
"They've even called him a killer when he's done more than anyone to fight terrorists. In his eight years in power, more terrorists than ever have been arrested. It's very sad. I hope we can sort it out in four years."
Mariano Rajoy, who led the PP into last Sunday's poll, at one point waved at the crowd from a window. The PP had not called the demonstration, which was organised by supporters via e-mails and text messages, protesters said.
About 3,000 people attended the demonstration, waving national and PP flags. Police cordoned off the area, but there was no trouble at the protest which lasted a couple of hours.
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