Grieving Spain ousts ruling party

MADRID -- Spanish voters, many of them outraged at what they saw as government attempts to play politics with the terrorist train bombings last Thursday, handed the Socialist Party a dramatic upset victory yesterday over the Popular Party of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a staunch US ally in the war in Iraq.

Many voters also expressed fury that the incumbent Popular Party had, they felt, made Spain a target for Al Qaeda by backing the US-led war in Iraq even though more than 90 percent of Spain was opposed to the invasion.

With 99 percent of the votes counted, the Socialist Party had 164 seats in the 350-member parliament and the ruling Popular Party had 147, down from 183 seats in the outgoing legislature.

Turnout yesterday was significantly higher than in the previous election as Spaniards went to the polls still shaken by the bombings that killed 200 people. Although authorities say the investigation is ongoing, the arrests of three Moroccans and two Indians and claims of responsibility by groups speaking in the name of Al Qaeda indicate the attack was the work of a terrorist cell inspired by Osama bin Laden's call to punish the "Crusader alliance" that invaded Iraq.

The Popular Party's surprising demise was the result of a punishing electorate, political analysts said, that lashed out at the way the government handled the investigation of the train bombings, accusing it of playing political games with the bloodiest atrocity in Spain since the 1936 civil war.

The incumbents were seen as trying to gain a political advantage by blaming the attacks on the Basque separatist group, ETA -- which is on the US State Department list of terrorist organizations -- despite ETA's repeated denials and intelligence assessments that the attacks were more likely connected to Al Qaeda.

"The government has been playing with information, manipulating us like [the late Spanish dictator Francisco] Franco used to do," said Pedro Munoz, 62, referring to what he said was the government's exaggeration of the threat in Iraq and the attempt by the government to paint ETA as the main suspect despite information that contradicted that.

"No one wanted the war in Iraq, but Aznar didn't listen to the population. Then he lied to us about the train bombings, and that was too much. He paid the price for the lies," said Munoz, a retired car dealer, shouting over the cheering crowds last night at the Socialist Party headquarters.

The election results were in many ways a personal condemnation of the outgoing Aznar, who was stepping down and turning over party leadership to his choice of successor, Mariano Rajoy.

It was a stunning political fall from grace for Aznar, who before Thursday had been viewed as a successful leader who was about to walk off into the sunset credited with helping Spain achieve economic success. Before the bombing, opinion polls indicated that Aznar's party would win because a surging economy had trumped the country's opposition to the war.

But yesterday morning, when Aznar went to vote alongside his wife, television crews captured a protester yelling, "Your war, our dead!"

Many voters for the winning side accused Aznar of making Spain a target for Islamic extremists because of his support for the Iraq war, despite the opposition of more than 90 percent of Spaniards. Aznar sent 1,300 Spanish troops to Iraq after the conflict, and 11 of them have died.

The newly-elected Socialist Party leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has vowed to pull those troops out of Iraq when their tour of duty is over this summer and has promised to bring Spain back into the European diplomatic fold with France and Germany, both of which opposed the war in Iraq. He has, nevertheless, also vowed to continue a strong and united fight against terrorism.

There was a sullen, at times angry mood at the Popular Party headquarters as Rajoy delivered a short concession speech.

Arturo Nevado, 32, a marketer who lives in the wealthy enclave of Salamanca in the capital, said: "The terrorists win. The terrorists want a government that talks with them, not fights with them, and it looks like they got that."

The idea that the fear of more bombings may have propelled voters on the left to push Aznar out of power was shared by voters on both the right and left.

"It's the vote of fear, and I guess Al Qaeda wins the vote. It's very sad, but Al Qaeda wins," said Ignacio de Jorge, 34, a Philip Morris corporate employee who voted for the Socialist Party.

The last four days constituted an extraordinary odyssey for Spain. The country was rocked by the sequence of 10 bombings in 15 minutes that ripped through four trains along a central commuter line at rush hour early Thursday morning. Even though the election was 72 hours away, the country called an end to campaigning.

The day after the bombings, the nation united like a family in mourning as an estimated 11 million people -- one-fourth of the country's population -- took to the streets in cities, towns, and villages for an outpouring of grief and expression of resolve to fight terrorism.

"Spain has never voted in such a tragic situation. There's a feeling of anguish, sadness, horror," said Joaquin Leguina, former president of Madrid's regional government.

But then the bickering started.

The Popular Party leadership began to stridently assert that the bombings were the work of ETA, despite the organization's denials.

Then the Socialist Party, believing the conservatives would benefit in the election if the bombing was the work of ETA, accused the Popular Party of playing politics with a national tragedy and of concealing information from the public that, in fact, it was Islamic extremists who carried out the attacks.

Late Saturday night, there was a break in the case; three Moroccans and two Indians were arrested. Then a videotape statement was provided to police in which a group claiming to speak in the name of Al Qaeda made a specific claim of responsibility for the attacks.

Within hours, rowdy street demonstrations broke out in front of the headquarters of the ruling party and carried on into the predawn, just hours before the polls were set to open.

Police in riot gear barricaded the headquarters with armored personnel carriers as more than 10,000 people banged trash can lids and pots, chanting "No more lies!"

When the polls opened, the voters turned out in force; 63 percent of registered voters went to the polls yesterday compared with 55 percent in 2000.