Spanish Elections in the Wake of 11-M
An Insider's Perspective
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
Thank goodness that all of my friends in Madrid are okay! I finally heard from all of them. A good Spanish friend of mine saw the whole thing unfold at Atocha Renfe station, and he is pretty certain that had he entered the station 2 minutes earlier, he'd be "muerto". I thought that I'd share part of an email sent to me by a friend of mine who is teaching English in Madrid. You can all read the news, but it's interesting to get an insider's perspective:
"AS for the elections, the results really depended on who exactly set
the bombs. I´ve been told that if people thought it was ETA, then the PP
would win because they have done a lot to fight these leftist extremists.
HOwever, if it was Al Queada then the PSOE is expected to win because of AZnar´s
alliance with the United States against these islamic terrorists. Now
that everyone is sure that it´s Al Qaeda there is a good chance that the
PSOE will win and a lot of things will change. I have spoken with students
and some Spanish friends and most support the PP. They don´t like how the
PSOE would change the Spanish government and don´t want spain to completely
withdraw from its alliance with the US and Britain. I was in Puerta del
Sol today and there were all these candles lit in honor of the victims of
11-M. There were also signs saying STOP VIOLENCE! and Spanish flags hung all
over the Ayuntamiento with peace signs on them. HOwever, what really
disturbed me was there were tons of HATE signs all over namely blaming Aznar, Bush,
Blair, and the US as a whole for the bombings. I don´t support what Bush has
done, but it seems really hypocritical to me that people were angry with
Bush for attacking Iraq purely out of vengeance, but yet they so easily
have placed their anger with terrorism on other countries. We all want to
stop terrorism, but anger and hatred are no solution to this problem."
The results of the election should be in soon and will be rather interesting. Before the attack, the Popular Party candidate, Mariano Rajoy, had a lead of 3-5 percentage point over the Socialist party candidate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. But now Spaniards who were previously going to give their vote to the PP are changing it to Socialist. And those who were not previously planning on voting at all are throwing their support behind the Socialists. Spaniards have been saying all along that Aznar's support of the US effort in Iraq would backfire. Remember that approximately 95% of the population opposed the war. There was and still is overwhelming opposition to the war in the form of huge protests in the streets. Another thing to keep in mind is that Spaniards were furious with their own government , not with the US, for getting them into the war. It wasn't so much anti-American sentiment as it was anti-Aznar & the PP. They were able to forget temporarily about their anger at the government for ignoring 95% of the people's wishes in a democracy, but these brutal attacks (and that fact that some are accusing the government of concealing the al-Queda connection from the government for fear of political fall-out) have rekindled that flame of anger and mistrust.
"AS for the elections, the results really depended on who exactly set
the bombs. I´ve been told that if people thought it was ETA, then the PP
would win because they have done a lot to fight these leftist extremists.
HOwever, if it was Al Queada then the PSOE is expected to win because of AZnar´s
alliance with the United States against these islamic terrorists. Now
that everyone is sure that it´s Al Qaeda there is a good chance that the
PSOE will win and a lot of things will change. I have spoken with students
and some Spanish friends and most support the PP. They don´t like how the
PSOE would change the Spanish government and don´t want spain to completely
withdraw from its alliance with the US and Britain. I was in Puerta del
Sol today and there were all these candles lit in honor of the victims of
11-M. There were also signs saying STOP VIOLENCE! and Spanish flags hung all
over the Ayuntamiento with peace signs on them. HOwever, what really
disturbed me was there were tons of HATE signs all over namely blaming Aznar, Bush,
Blair, and the US as a whole for the bombings. I don´t support what Bush has
done, but it seems really hypocritical to me that people were angry with
Bush for attacking Iraq purely out of vengeance, but yet they so easily
have placed their anger with terrorism on other countries. We all want to
stop terrorism, but anger and hatred are no solution to this problem."
The results of the election should be in soon and will be rather interesting. Before the attack, the Popular Party candidate, Mariano Rajoy, had a lead of 3-5 percentage point over the Socialist party candidate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. But now Spaniards who were previously going to give their vote to the PP are changing it to Socialist. And those who were not previously planning on voting at all are throwing their support behind the Socialists. Spaniards have been saying all along that Aznar's support of the US effort in Iraq would backfire. Remember that approximately 95% of the population opposed the war. There was and still is overwhelming opposition to the war in the form of huge protests in the streets. Another thing to keep in mind is that Spaniards were furious with their own government , not with the US, for getting them into the war. It wasn't so much anti-American sentiment as it was anti-Aznar & the PP. They were able to forget temporarily about their anger at the government for ignoring 95% of the people's wishes in a democracy, but these brutal attacks (and that fact that some are accusing the government of concealing the al-Queda connection from the government for fear of political fall-out) have rekindled that flame of anger and mistrust.
