The Spanish people have unknowingly given Al Qaeda exactly what it wanted.

As an exchange student living in Central Madrid, I have observed that the Spanish electorate may have acted in defiance and not out of cowardice-but the message sent to terrorists around the world may still be the same.

Three days after an Al Qaeda attack that killed 201 and injured over 1000, Spain went against pre-election poles and elected Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the PSOE, or Socialist party candidate who was projected to lose to the current ruling Popular Party.

The assumed reason for his victory: Zapatero has campaigned that he will pull Spanish troops from Iraq by June if lacking UN support whereas the PP originally involved Spain in Iraq despite the opposition of 90 percent of Spaniards.

Involvement in Iraq was never the main issue in the election until after the attacks; therefore, now the world is accusing Spain of hiding under the bed from Al Qaeda’s threats.

While I agree that allowing terrorists to change elections will prove dangerous for world security, I am starting to understand why it happened.

Nearly two weeks ago, I awoke to a text message inquiring after my wellbeing because the train station I use to reach school had been bombed.

Although a van filled with seven detonators, papers with Arabic writing and a tape of Koran teachings had been found by 12:00 p.m., I spent the day unaware of a possible Al Qaeda connection. I watched Channel One news alternate between pictures of dead bodies in the train wreckage and footage of political figures expressing sadness and assuring viewers that the Spanish terrorist group, ETA, would be punished for the bombings. I was clearly turning to the wrong news source.

Apparently public television Channels One and Two have long been recognized within Spain as being tools of the government. But according to many Spanish residents, the PP’s abuse of the media went far enough this time to cause the shift in the election.

One such believer is University of Carlos III professor Montserrat Iglesias Santos. Iglesias was one of the many who helped to organize last Saturday night’s illegal protests against the PP. She also works as assistant director of the Hispanic Studies Courses that Washington University student take in Madrid.

Iglesias adamantly defends that the Spanish people elected PSOE out of indignation at the manipulation of the PP and not fear of Al Qaeda.

“The Popular Party did not lose the elections because of the attack,” said Iglesias. “It lost the election because of its lies.”

Professor Santos supported this position by revealing how Thursday afternoon PP president Aznar personally called the directors of Spanish newspapers to assure them of ETA’s responsibility for the bombings.

The same day the Exterior Minister sent out a letter to the Spanish ambassadors restating ETA’s guilt.

Although not stressed on Channel One, on Thursday 7:00 p.m. ETA had informed GARA, a sympathizing Basque country newspaper, that the attacks had not been theirs.

On Sunday foreign correspondents in Spain announced that a government civil servant had pressured them to focus on ETA.

Of course the Spanish people could have, and did, look to other media outlets for the full story throughout the weekend. But the fact remains that they knew they had been deceived. And there is no doubt that this had an effect on voters.

And of course there were other factors. Certainly some people changed their votes to PSOE simply to run from the situation. Certainly others who had no intention to vote were motivated by the weekend’s turmoil of events. After all, an amazing 77 percent of the population voted. And perhaps the election was going to be a little closer than expected. Polls are not always right.

But the fact remains that regardless of the reasons behind the election shift, the world now has to live with the consequences of Al Qaeda learning it can change an election with an attack. And while PSOE supporters are celebrating this shift as a victory for democracy, the world is recognizing it as a victory for Al Qaeda.

And the terrorists can never be allowed to think their tactics are working.

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2004 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Forum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.