Madrid Bombs Shook Voters
Distrust of the Government, Anger at U.S. Fueled Upset
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 16, 2004; Page A01
washingtonpost.com
MADRID, March 15 -- The hand-lettered sign at the sidewalk memorial for the 200 victims of last week's deadly train bombings starkly summed up the sentiment of many who came to pay respects Monday afternoon. It read: "They Died to Support Bush."
Sunday's stunning electoral defeat for the ruling party of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, one of President Bush's closest European allies, reflected a late surge of public anger over the government's support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq triggered both by the attacks and by a sense that the government had sought to exploit the bombings for political gain, according to political analysts and voters.
Several added that it also reflected a sense of alarm and despair that appears to cut across the political spectrum over the way the United States is wielding power in the world.
"We love America -- Faulkner, Hemingway, Coca-Cola and Marilyn Monroe -- but we have something against your government," said Luis Gonzales, 56, a high school Spanish literature teacher, as he stopped to view the rows of candles, flowers and makeshift signs at the central Puerta del Sol. "Aznar took us into a war that wasn't our war but only for the benefit of the extreme right and the American companies."
Some analysts said the vote cast doubts on Spain's commitment to the war on terrorism, and warned that the extremists responsible for last week's attacks would view the results as a clear-cut victory. They warned that European leaders who sided with Washington in the Iraq war, such as Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, could face similar electoral upheaval and the threat of a terrorist strike on their own civilian populations.
"It's important to see Spain as part of a much wider phenomenon, not only European but global, and what's affected the election there could affect other countries and other elections as well," said Mark Leonard, director of the Foreign Policy Center, a London-based research group.
While little hard polling information was yet available, analysts pointed to an unexpected level of voter turnout -- which at 77 percent was 9 points higher than the 2000 elections -- and the participation of 2 million first-time voters as indicating a last-minute surge against the ruling Popular Party. The winning Socialist Workers' Party and a number of regional anti-government parties also gained support in autonomous provinces.
Usually analysts expect a dramatic disaster such as last week's synchronized attacks on morning rush-hour commuters to solidify support for governing parties with well-defined law-and-order policies. At first, when officials blamed the Basque separatist movement known as ETA for the bombings, the pattern seemed to be holding, with opinion polls suggesting the ruling party might increase its grip on power. The Aznar government has been widely credited for taking a tough stance against ETA.
But in the ensuing 48 hours, as suspicion shifted toward Islamic extremists connected with the al Qaeda network, the tide appeared to turn. Opposition politicians and journalists alleged that the Aznar government was withholding evidence implicating al Qaeda, triggering unprecedented street demonstrations outside Popular Party headquarters here and in other major cities on the eve of Sunday's elections.
While ETA was widely seen as an unavoidable domestic enemy that had to be confronted, many voters said they believed al Qaeda would never have targeted Spain had Aznar not supported Bush in the Iraq war. "Americans need to understand that Bush's attitude is causing more hatred and more terrorism," said Marie Isabel Garcia, 31, a foreign language graduate student who visited the Puerta del Sol memorial.
Others said their votes reflected both a lack of confidence in Spain's intelligence and security services, which failed to detect warning signals that the attack was imminent, and a lack of trust in Aznar, who has been accused of manipulating and selectively using intelligence information for political purposes. Recent disclosures that the U.S. and British governments used faulty intelligence on Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction to justify the Iraq war compounded the government's credibility problem. In the end, those issues overshadowed the government's recognized success in managing Spain's economy.
Some of the highly visible anti-American sentiment here is aimed directly at Bush, who is viewed by many as a hard-liner lacking empathy for other countries. Several people at the Puerta del Sol singled out Bush's televised expression of sympathy following the train bombings as insensitive.
"He was cold and aloof," complained Elena Nicolas, a civil servant in her late thirties. "He didn't even bother to wear a black tie."
Many here contend Aznar has adopted a servile stance toward the United States. In contrast, Socialist party leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero stressed his independence and willingness to criticize Washington. Many approvingly cited an incident during last October's Columbus Day military parade when Zapatero sat down as the American flag passed by. "It's not my flag," he reportedly said later.
Zapatero's image as a relative political neophyte was also widely seen as an advantage. He promised voters what he called "full transparency," implying that Aznar and his cabinet had been less than honest in the aftermath of last week's attacks. Previous episodes, such as claims that Aznar's government had concealed damaging information about a major oil spill off Spain's Atlantic coast two years ago, fed the perception that the outgoing prime minister and his party were not trustworthy.
"All the negative elements of his political personality were shown at this stage and the election became a plebiscite against Aznar," said Antonio Lorsa, a University of Madrid political scientist. "People felt one cannot trust this party and this man."
Spain has long had a difficult relationship with the United States. The conservative establishment resented America for destroying the remains of the Spanish empire during the Spanish-American War in 1898 and supplanting Spain as the dominant imperial power in Latin America. Spain's political left, which admired the United States, felt betrayed when Washington forged a strategic alliance with the late fascist ruler Francisco Franco after World War II.
"The American army entered the rest of Europe as liberators but entered Spain as collaborators with the Franco regime," said Jose Varela Ortega, vice president of the Ortega y Gasset Foundation, a research organization in Madrid.
But Varela, who described himself as pro-American, said Spanish voters resented the war on terrorism because of a natural tendency to opt for a policy of ignoring or appeasing violent extremists. "It is very human to blame the policeman and not the criminal," he said. "You see it in France and Germany and to a large extent in Spain -- that the best thing to do is to let them alone, the Saddam Husseins of this world, and nothing bad will happen. The policeman is the troublemaker, and [the Americans] are the policeman of the world."
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