JimenaPulse has traditionally not become involved in Spanish national politics and rarely in the local variety. Indeed, this is probably the first time we have done so since we began this blog in March this year. What prompts us to do so now is the behaviour of some opposition political leaders faced with a Supreme Court decision in the case against the terrorists that wrought havoc in Madrid on March 11 2004 (known in Spanish as 11-M).
Without getting into too much detail, of which there is a great deal, one of the court’s findings was that ETA, the Basque nationalist terrorist organization, had nothing to do with the series of bombings that killed 191 and injured over 2000 on the capital’s railway system. That, of course, was the conclusion initially postulated by José María Aznar’s PP government, in power at the time, and for which no evidence has been found after 21 months of trials and investigation. Political analysts the world over have been almost unanimous in saying that, had the bombs been pinned on ETA, it would have favoured the PP in national elections that were due to take place three days later, on March 14th, because the then government had dealt several severe blows to that terrorist organization; had the tragedy been put – as it has – at the hands of Islamist reactionaries, the electorate would have concluded that it was as a direct result of Spain’s involvement in Iraq, a decision by the Aznar government that was extremely unpopular. The PP’s reaction, rather than the bombings themselves, cost them dearly: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the PSOE were swept into government in a near landslide.
The PP has never got over the defeat and, with all the evidence out in the open three years later, is behaving like a child caught stealing an apple and denying it while still holding the apple. In a shameful lack of courage the PP’s present leader, Mariano Rajoy, and his underlings, Miguel Ángel Acebes, the party’s General Secretary and Minister of the Interior and the Police (equivalent to Home Secretary) under Aznar when the bombings took place, and Eduardo Zaplana, presently the PP’s chief spokesperson and also a minister under Aznar at that time, will still not admit to having been wrong about the bombers in 2004. It is politics at its very worst.
There is an expression in Spanish that sums up the situation: Es de hombres admitir su error, which can be loosely translated as ‘A true man admits his mistakes’. At the time of writing, there doesn’t seem to be a man among them.
(A comment from an assiduous Spanish reader points out that the expression mentioned above does not sound right and suggests another: Es de sabios rectificar, which translates into ‘A wise man corrects his mistakes’. Therefore, an alternative last sentence would read: ‘At the time of writing, there does not seem to be a wise man among them.’ Either or both endings will do nicely.)
JimenaPulse 
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