Sunday’s general elections in Spain brought an end to
Spain’s conservative Popular Party’s eight-year rule
after almost 200 Spaniards were killed in terrorist attacks in
Madrid.
José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of the Spanish Socialist
Worker’s Party became the new prime minister of Spain in an
election that highly favored the Popular Party before the
attacks.
The incoming prime minister offered criticism of the Iraq war
and promised to withdraw Spanish peacekeeping troops from Iraq
unless the United Nations takes control of the operation by the end
of June.
The March 11 bombings were initially blamed on the Basque
separatist group ETA. With a general election six days after the
attacks, the Popular Party was criticized for withholding
information that could link the attacks to al-Qaeda.
The results of the election highlighted the belief of many
Spaniards that the terrorists attacks were connected to the Popular
Party’s support for the United States and Spain’s
involvement in the Iraq war.
Through the shock and grief of the bombings, some Spanish
students at UCLA responded differently toward the rise of the
Socialist Worker’s Party in Spain.
Xavier Nogue, a graduate student at the UCLA Anderson School of
Management who hails from Barcelona, said the election showed that
terrorists were not only able to harm the Spanish people physically
but also managed to change the intentions of the voting
population.
“We had previous elections while the conservative party
was in power, and there was a lot of reaction against the war on
the streets and in the media, but people continued to vote that
party, but now after 3/11 everything has changed,” Nogue
said.
Nogue said he is against removing Spanish troops from Iraq
because countries need to be united in the fight against
terrorism.
“Why are we retreating our troops if we want to do
something to fight the terrorists? We are not fighting terrorism
properly by turning our backs on the United States and
England,” Nogue said.
Alvaro Molina, a graduate student in Spanish literature from
Malaga, said though he is still in shock and trying to sort
information out, he understands why Spaniards voted for a change of
political parties.
“This is something that makes you reconsider your beliefs.
People want to fix the problem the easiest, fastest and most
effective way even though it’s not necessarily the best
way,” Molina said.
Molina called the results of the election in Spain “a vote
of punishment” for a government that pushed Spain into the
war with Iraq when many Spaniards protested the war from the very
beginning.
Molina, who was in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, compared
the effects the recent bombings had on Spaniards to the effects
Sept. 11, 2001 had on Americans.
“I can really understand now how Americans felt after
9/11. A lot of people wanted revenge right away. People want
something done. My gut tells me I want something done,”
Molina said.
Isaac Najera, a civil engineering graduate student from Madrid,
voted for the Socialist Worker’s Party by a mail-in ballot
prior to the terrorist attacks.
Najera said his impression of the election was that the
Socialist Worker’s Party was catching up to the Popular Party
even before the bombings.
“I think the Spanish people wanted change. The attacks
were the tiny push that was needed to overwhelm the edge and change
everything,” he said.
Najera, who said he demonstrated in Madrid against the war, said
a unilateral war was never the right way to fight terrorism.
“I want to fight terrorism, but with the United Nations,
with countries together. My perception is that we added fuel to the
fire by going into war,” Najera said.
Najera also expressed concern that the terrorist attacks could
bring discrimination to Spain’s large Muslim population.
“I’m afraid that this conflict may spread to
Christian and Muslim relationships. Anger can sometimes make good
people into evil people. I’m afraid of this not only in Spain
but for all of Europe,” Najera said.