Abstract

A Vote for Honesty

The author claims that the Spanish people voted out the country's conservative government because they believed their leaders lied to them about the perpetrators of the Madrid terrorist bombings on March 11. It is a maxim of politics that people do not vote on foreign policy. But foreign policy became a domestic issue here on March 11, when the country was shaken by the early morning terrorist strikes on four Madrid commuter trains. The moment at which Spaniards decided to throw out the conservative Popular Party that had ruled the country for eight years was not the attack itself, which took more than 200 lives and injured over 1,500 people. In the immediate aftermath of the blasts the government announced that they had almost certainly been the work of the Basque separatist group ETA, and with national elections only three days away, the conventional wisdom here was that the people would rally behind the ruling party for its hard-line law-and-order policies. People did not like being lied to. The night before the elections, thousands filled the streets outside the Popular Party's headquarters, accusing the government of making Spain a target with its US alliance and then trying to cover up the consequences. In a news conference, Prime Minister-elect Jos& eacute; Luis Rodr& xed;guez Zapatero called the Iraq war and subsequent occupation "a disaster" and pledged to bring Spain's 1,300 troops home by the end of June unless the occupation comes under United Nations control.