Spain's incoming prime minister has rejected claims that his general election victory was an appeasement of extremists behind the Madrid attacks.
| "Nope. Nope. Not us. Nope. Now way, Jose!" |
Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Spaniards had reacted bravely and would fight terrorism.
| "Just not with bullets, okay? We're, like, not into explosives and such." |
The Madrid bombings which left 190 dead have been blamed on Islamic extremists. Senior US officials said voters had appeased terrorists by rejecting Jose Maria Aznar's government - a key US ally in the war on Iraq. Many Spanish voters said it was Spain's involvement in the war, which went against overwhelming popular opposition, that had provoked the 11 March attacks.
| "So if we're nice, they won't bother us, right?" |
Mr Aznar's conservative Partido Popular (PP) had been widely expected to win a third term in government. But the train bombings are considered to have provoked a higher turnout in the elections three days later - in favour of the opposition Socialists (PSOE). Mr Zapatero, addressing his party on Friday, dismissed the accusations of appeasement made in the US by Republican congressman Dennis Hastert, among others. He said Spain had lived with attacks by militant Basque separatists Eta for more than 30 years, well before the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US. "We did not discover the ruthless face of terror three years ago," he said. He said claims that his election victory was due to Spanish voters being scared of terrorists were "simply indecent". |