Editorials
Miserable winner, miserable loser
By h.b. - Mar 4, 2008 - 9:20 PM
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EDITORIAL COMMENT
The leader of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, has called the Socialist candidate for re-election on Sunday, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, ‘miserable’ for, as he sees it, using the deaths of terrorist victims in the TV debate held last night.
What Zapatero did was compare the number of deaths in Spain at the hands of terrorists in this legislature, 4, to the number in the last Partido Popular government, 238.
Of course the loss of a single human life in such a way is dreadful, and there should be political unity across the parties in the fight against terrorism. Zapatero also last night promised to give full and unconditional support to the new Spanish Government on the subject, and indeed his record when leader of the opposition shows that on this matter, at least, he is as good as his word.
It is the Partido Popular which has broken the unity expected from the opposition during this legislature. They have repeated time and time again that you cannot talk to terrorists, although José María Aznar did the very same thing when in power. Zapatero even obtained a vote in Congress to allow him to try for peace.
ETA has been at the centre of the Partido Popular’s questions in congress for the past four years, and the PP’s mistaken belief, some might say obsession, of firstly, ETA authorship in the Madrid Train Bombings, and secondly, of links between the Islamists and ETA is now legendary.
It is a sad reflection on the last four years in Spain on just how the different associations of terrorism victims are just as political polarised as the public at large, and we remember that the Partido Popular has been a continuous supporter of the right-wing AVT in their activities and marches against the Government.
In this landscape it is therefore completely understandable for Zapatero to answer as he did, although no doubt the comment came ‘off-script’. Such numbers are printed in graphic form on a regular basis in Spanish newspapers and, ugly as it may be, the number of deaths at the hands of the terrorists is the bottom line of the subject. To think that mentioning them in such a debate is somehow prohibited or taboo is unrealistic, tragic as it is.
Even the King, Juan Carlos I, has called repeatedly for cross-party unity on the matter, but unfortunately, in the last few days of this legislature at least, we are not going to see it.
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