Here is the text...written in English...sorry about that, I thought the link would go directly to the story
Zeta
Aznar didn’t lose because of the bombs, but because of his arrogance.
RAFAEL RAMOS - 20/03/2004 - 15.02 horas
Mr. Aznar has lost power not because of Al Qaeda and the bombs in Madrid, but because of a big lie. His government took Spain to war in Iraq on a false premise, lied about weapons of mass destruction, lied about connections between Saddam Hussein and the islamic terror network, aligned himself with George W. Bush and Tony Blair, changed the traditional foreign policy of Spain and refused to debate all these very susbstantial matters in Parliament. He exploited terrorism for political purposes, appealed to the lowest feelings in the Spanish electorate and feeded national and ideological divisions like Spain hasn’t known since the 1930’s, prior to the Civil War.
The two questions that obvioulsy come to mind is why Spain has voted liked this, and what does it mean. The fact that a tragedy like March 11th has had an impact on the turnout (almost 80 percent) and possibly the result of elections in a western democratic country is worrying. But at the end of the day Mr. Aznar and his Popular Party have lost not because of a terrorist attack, but because of their own arrogance, questionable democratic practices, and the belief that they could fool all the people all the time. They took Spain to the forefront of the Iraq postcolonial war against the wishes of ninety per cent of the Spanish population, and that was always going to be their ‘weakest link’. They got fairly decent results in last May’s municipal elections, and probably thought they had got away with it. When bombs exploded in Madrid’s suburban trains on Thursday, the Aznar government panicked. It was their nightmare scenario, the only thing that could bring defeat in the polls. And the reaction was to take the ‘big lie’ all the way to the end: to blame ETA, the basque terrorist group, even if all the evidence pointed to islamic radicals. After all they controlled the state television, the state radio and most of the press. They only needed three days of confusion and contradicting stories, and then they would safe. And it almost worked, they missed by 24 hours.
What Spain has seen in the last couple of days is a ‘popular democratic revolution’ that Mr. Aznar and his party hadn’t accounted for, the equivalent to May 68 in Paris. While the government mobilized all its ambassadors in foreign capitals and called the national and foreign media to ‘sell’ the story that ETA was to blame, tens of thousands of Spanish voters spontaneously took to the streets, communicating by Internet and mobile phones, to claim their right to know the truth. The Popular Party had gone too far in their manipulation, unknowingly they had planted the seeds of their own destruction. Nothing justifies the pain inflicted by the bombs, but in the politic sense it was poetic justice, Mr. Aznar had been killed by his own sword.
The end never justifies the means, and nobody in Spain would exchange two hundred lifes for the result of an election. Everybody would turn the clock to 7 A.M on thursday morning, only if we could... But the country is today politically healthier than it was just a few days ago. Mr. Aznar has enjoyed a good press abroad, but over eighy years he had poisoned the air to an enormous extent, exploiting fear, and stigmatizing Catalan and Basques as ‘terrorism sympathizers’. It was an electoral strategy, to divide and conquer.
History changes very solwly, and the Popular Party has a stronghold of nine to ten million voters who support it whatever the circunstances, because they are natural conservatives, or authoritarians, or for economic interest, or nostalgy for the ‘good old days’ of Franco. Some of them turned against Aznar not because he supported Bush on Iraq, or because of the bombs on March 11, but because he lied in such a flagrant way. But the big political phenomenon, the equivalent of a ‘second transition’ in Spain, is the fact that millions of young citizens felt motivated to vote for the first time, and voted for truth, and peace, and transparency. In the United States, most voters would have reacted to March 11 supporting the government out of a misleading idea of ‘patriotism’. In Spain the responded by calling the bluff and voting the government out off office.
The new socialist leader doesn’t have any experience in government, and everything suggests it will be a rough ride for him. After all Tony Blair could’n say ‘no’ to Bush on Iraq, and it will not be easy for Mr. Zapatero to call the White House and explain that Spain is withdrawing its troops from the Gulf by June 30th. He will do it, though, because he has a political mandate. The only killers are the ones who put the bombs, but Mr. Aznar can not possibly evade his political resposability. Washington can talk about the psychological impact of 11-S, Blair can talk about the ‘special relationship’ between London and Washington, but Spain didn’t get anything out of being in the front line of war against islamic terrorism. Except a few ‘photo-ops’ of the former prime minister in the Azores, or wearing a texan hat, or embracing George Bush as his pal... Very oportunistic and selfish indeed. All that was in the mind of Spanish voters last Sunday, as much as the bombs in Madrid. Out of tragedy, Spain has lived a catharsis in the last few days. The country has got ridden of the fascist and authiritarian ghosts that were threatening again. It has supported a different style of government, and voted for a more humble prime minister who accepts dialogue and will consider the Basque and Catalan demands for more autonomous power, even for a constitutional change towards a federal state. In a matter of days the power has shifted dramatically from the authoritarian right and the central state to the young and the nationalist periphery. The emphasis of the Spanish foreign policy will switch from an unconditional support of Bush and the northamerican ‘neocons’ towards the francogerman positions of the European Union, the traditional role of Spain as a ‘bridge’ betweeen Europe annd Latinamerica, and between the western and arab worlds. Reality and common sense will return. Aznar and his Popular Party were just 24 hours away of getting away with it, but they went one lie too far... For once, just may be, Spain has shown a glimpse of the future to Britain and the United States. |
