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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (34205)	3/13/2004 11:55:27 AM
From: zeta1961	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793731

<<if ETA...Aznar's Conservative party will get it...if A-Q the people want Zapatero the socialist candidate...>> I'll try to give an explanation based on what I know and what I'm being told by a few people in Spain(for disclosure I am not a Spanish native, but have spent considerable time in that country... During Aznar's 8 year tenure, his top priorities have been to lift Spain's economy...he's succeeded by many measures which include Spain now being the 8th largest economy, it's report card with in the EU is better than the big players such as France, Germany, decreasing deficits increasing employment...he has also vehemently gone after ETA...refusing any negotiation but going after them... BUT...his strong alignment with the US and Britain for the Iraqi war was against the people's will as evidenced by the massive demonstrations last year... Zapatero, the socialist opponent has lost points in the public's view because of his softer stance re: the ETA while Aznar's party has scored based on it's economic policy and ETA policy...yet Zapatero has appealed to some for 1) being more charismatic than Aznar's hand-picked opponent 2) promising the people that he will pull out Spanish troops still in Spain and disengage from the Aznar authored alliance with the US regarding Iraq...yet until March 11, Aznar's party was ahead in the polls because of the economy and ETA policy edit: Zapatero will pull out troops still in Iraq... Therefore if it's found that A-Q acted alone, this will fuel the people's now justified(in their view) opposition to Spanish involvement in Iraq....for which they harbor much anger at Aznar...again, this is what the my friend indicated and what I've also been reading in the Spanish newspapers... Of particular note...none of the Spanish major's like El País, La Vanguardia, El Mundo....have editorialized about the US-Spain-Iraqi-Madrid bombing connection...I´m quite impressed with esp. La Vanguardia which is Barcelona based and known to be critical of Aznar...in all the editorials of the papers above, the stance has been: "WE don't know who it was, but at this point we must stand in solidarity with our fellow Madrileños in this time of grief, sorrow against ALL acts of terrorism.... As a footnote...although many of you already know this...Spain is basically a tapestry of at least 4 distinct cultures sewn together by past leaders...they have their of share quibbling amongst eachother...but despite the differences(language, customs, views on politics) they respect and care about the integrity of Spain....except of course ETA who's goal has been to splinter the country...and ETA has lost substantial people's support in Basque country in the last decade...even pre March 11, at an all time low... Hence, the events of March 11 and the demonstrations yesterday, have even greater meaning whan looked at within the context of the inter-relationships of the different regions... Zeta