Spain's prime minister has rejected claims that his election victory was the result of voters bowing to terror in the wake of the Madrid bombings.
The Socialist Party of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero  was elected three days after the train bombs killed 191. Mr Zapatero told a parliamentary commission investigating the 11 March attacks that Spaniards had never submitted to terrorist violence.
| "Us Spaniards is tough! We'd never do dat!" |
It is the first time a prime minister has appeared before such a commission. He was grilled for more than four hours by members of the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) which, under Jose Maria Aznar, was in power at the time of the attacks. Mr Zapatero told the commission: * Mr Aznar had increased the risk of attack by Islamic terrorists by supporting the war on Iraq and such a threat was "clearly underestimated"
* the attacks were exclusively planned and carried out by the same brand of radical Islamic terrorism behind 11 September in the US and subsequent attacks in Bali, Istanbul and Casablanca
* claims that militant Basque separatists Eta were to blame was "a massive deception" by Mr Aznar
* the outgoing PP administration wiped computers of information before they left - particularly material relating to the 11 March attacks
* the Socialists were not behind protest rallies that took place outside PP buildings after the attacks. Mr Aznar faced the commission two weeks ago. On Monday, Mr Zapatero strongly denied claims that his party had tried to gain political ground from the attacks and he defended the decision made by Spanish voters. At the time of the attacks, senior US Republicans said Spain had succumbed to terrorist threats by ousting Mr Aznar's government. But Mr Zapatero said Spain had endured 30 years of terror under Eta, so why would his countrymen weaken after the bloodshed of the train bombings.
| Because of the turbans? Because of the fearsome way they roll their eyes? Because of the blood-curdling threats? |
"You did not listen to the Spanish people during the war in Iraq and afterwards the people stopped listening to you and stopped trusting you," he told members of the Popular Party at the hearing. Mr Zapatero withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq soon after taking office. A special side room has been reserved at the hearing for their families, many of whom have accused Spain's politicians of using this parliamentary inquiry more as a political football than as a means of finding out the truth. The parliamentary investigation into the attacks is set to close later this week after four months of hearings. Nineteen people have already been formally charged in connection with the case. |