Terror

[rowyn]

Getting just what they wanted.

"CNN also has obtained an al Qaeda document that spells out the terrorist group's plan to separate Spain from the U.S.-led coalition on Iraq.
...
"The strategy spelled out in the document calls for using terrorist attacks to oust Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Partido Popular from power and replace it with the Socialists.
...
"'We think the Spanish government will not stand more than two blows, or three at the most, before it will be forced to withdraw because of the public pressure on it,' the al Qaeda document says.
...
"the Socialists unseat[ed] the Popular Party three days after near-simultaneous bombings of four trains killed 200 and shocked the nation.
...
"Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday he wants the 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq to return home by June 30 if the United Nations 'doesn't take control of Iraq.'

"'I think Spain's participation in the war has been a total error,' he said."

I feel sick.

Comments

[rowyn]

If al Qaeda can convince other people they've changed the course of the election, then that will be an even bigger victory for them. CNN said that the war was unpopular even before the attack, but that "Before Thursday, the Popular Party had been favored to win by a comfortable margin."

Do you have links to something from before the attack that indicated the Socialists were in a better position prior to the bombings?

[zaimoni.livejournal.com]

The following post-mortem is interesting:

The PSOE made considerable gains before Mar. 11, as no voting intention survey released in March gave the PP an outright majority. Two Sigma Dos/El Mundo studies illustrated the start of a trend. From a maximum number of congressmen of 177 in a Mar. 2 poll, the PP went down to 173 four days later. Conversely, the Socialists "gained" five seats in the same span, from 139 to 144.

So there is no unanimous consensus that Aznar's political party was clearly ahead coming into the election.

Archaic links:
Aznar's visible nadir was in March 2003. However, ~10% of Spain's population did not feel the need to work more compelling than physically protesting Aznar's support of the U.S. on Feb. 15, 2003. That's not going away.