Last days have been very intense for everyone here. We went
through the worst nightmare ever in Europe. An attack of fundamentalist
islamic group that has killed many and injured more and hurted everyone
with sensibility. But the story about the following elections and results
I've been reading in some media can lead to a somehow biased image.
Days of an intense campaign were happening before the horror. The
last four years of Mr Aznar as president have been the worse for democracy
we've ever suffered. With an absolute majority the grey man has lead the
country as a feudal lord. With a strong party discipline not a word
against his power has been heard in spite of increasing social discomfort.
A macroeconomic exit and a manipulation of media has kept many people
thinking "Spain is doing well". The instrumentalism of terror and the Bush
theory of "with me or with the enemy", has brought Spain to a bigh level
of confrontation and radicalism.
Few days before the 11-M, 32 movie directors fed up of
manipulation and lack of freedom of expresion, presented a movie -made in
a record three weeks time- in which each one used 3 minutes to treat one
of the many dirty bussiness of the grey men (including corruption,
manipulation of media, the dealing of disasters as the Prestige oil tanker
spill, the Do�ana destruction, the education reform including again the
imposition of religion, the war against the wish of 90% of population, the
use of terrorism to divide and control, the lack of transparency...). The
movie is free and is been shown in cultural centers and local television
because big televisions were too scared of revenges (you can download it
free in www.haymotivo.com, in Spanish). I went to watch it on Wednesday
night and the queues were so long that they promise to keep showing it up
to Saturday. It's a good review of four years of despotism and lack of
democracy at all levels. To give an idea, we suffered a goverment that not
only never condemned the Franco dictatorship, but also gave the bigest
grant to an NGO to something called the Franco Foundation.
In this atmosphere in which Mr Aznar successor was avoiding any
public debates, the polls showed the distance with the opposition
candidate was shortening. We were mostly thinking in a small victory of
opossition that could be pushed with a leftist parties agreement to form a
goverment as happened in Catalunya region. We were hoping so, but we
couldnt imagine what was going to happen next day.
Then the horror happened and we were all shocked and raged. We all
though at first instance it was ETA. But when the number of killed began
to increase from 30 to 60 to 170 to 201... and more information where
arriving few hours after, we began to be suspicious. In 30 years of
suffering ETA this was a radical change of tactics. We couldnt believe it.
Even the radical -ilegalized- party (the equivalent to Sinn Fein) was
condemning -first time in history- the attack. ETA made several
communications putting distance with the horror (the biggest terrorist
attack from ETA killed 21 and even ETA apologized for the "error").
The goverment dismissed the information and on the contrary the
grey men did the same they've been doing for years: manipulate the
information. Only one version was official, one lemma: whatever the
information showed, they blamed ETA. They mislead even UN and phone
personally all media and diplomats to join their voices: ETA, ETA, ETA.
But still everyone was so eager for information that we end up
listening to the official version as if it were the Iraqi minister of
information during the Iraq war. It would have been funny if we wouldnt be
so angry and sad and anxious. It reached the highest point of absurd when
on Saturday evening they announced five detentions of suspects: three
Morrocans and two Indians and still they blame Basque ETA!!
At that point I was working (in fact just
reading frantically everything on the web in search of some *real*
information to disentangle what was happening). Then I read that some
people in Madrid had concentrated in front of the goverment party site.
And I walked there... none made any call to demonstrate, we were just to
angry to stay at home. At eight there were around 50 persons there, but as
more news were spreading -phoning friends, family...- more and more people
joined. People of all ages, of all believes. We just wanted the truth
before the elections.
The goverment party was very aware that an attack from ETA would
reinforce their hard politics on terror, but an attack from radical
islamist groups would make people realized that the world was not safer as
they promised after the unwanted, ilegal Iraq war.
More and more people spontaneously joined the demonstration, in
Barcelona there were three in different key points, in Madrid they went to
the city center and walked up to Atocha. In Valencia, in Galicia, in
Sevilla... all Spain was reacting to the lies this time. They were lying
on our deaths: lies for votes. We were not only sad and angry but being
ignored and treated as stupid. Once again.
At ten, the city shaked from the banging coming from all
buildings, all homes... people with saucepans, with stones againts metal
surfaces... even just shaking the keyrings the noise was breathtaking. We
kept shouting, singing, keeping minute after minute of silence and then
again banging...
Then the goverment candidate appeared on the media to say we were
ilegal and we were being demanded for manifesting the day before elections
and we should disperse peacefully... It was gross. We couldnt believe it.
We were peacefully showing our discontent. There we stay waiting for our
right to know the truth before the elections, if they wanted they could
come and jail us but we were not going to stop shouting.
A little before 1am, the official answer arrived, the minister
informed that at *eight* that evening one videotape arrived with a message
from some islamist group claiming for the attacks. Then they admitted for
first time that it was probably so, but they keep working on the ETA
possibility(!). At least, they accepted what everyone in the rest of the
world knew. Of course, it was 1am and many people went to vote without
knowing and still believing it was ETA. Moreover, the first channel of
national TV didnt show this comunication until much latter.
Next day 77% of voters went to decide by themselves. Very
peacefully but very intense, with long queues ever seen before. I dont
know anyone that didnt vote this time. We all wanted to have our say, to
show democracy cant be sttoped by terror attacks. And fortunately, to show
that manipulation has a limit, that even with all the media and some
economic success you cant mislead people all the time. Fortunately, the
opposition won.
Now, the future president will have a simple majority. He's
willing and he will need to negociate, to listen to all, to play
democracy. And to keep promises. One of those is to withdraw troops from
Iraq. But it's not that we're leaving because of the terrorist attacks as
some media has said. Not at all. the troops will stay if there is a
mandate of UN, within the international legality. And this is important.
We need a strong UN, we need a strong Europe. We need to unite against the
irrationality of terrorism. To strenghten security of course, but to look
for political solutions too.
The change of politics in Spain it's gonna have consequences in an
international level. It's again the success of democracy. Over the
terrorist attacks and over the state terror and manipulation too.
It was a big relief for most Spaniards. We're too sad to
celebrate anything. But still, the grey man has been defeated and a bit of
hope has arrived. Let's see if it keeps. We're not going to stop now. It's
just the beginning of a new time for Spain. Hopefully not only for Spain.