Backlash vote over bombings ousts Spain's party in power

By Keith B. Richburg
The Washington Post

	Two men look through voter lists outside a polling station in Madrid yesterday as the nation held general elections three days after commuter trains in the capital city became targets of terrorist attacks. The party of Prime Minister José María Aznar was voted out of power.
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MADRID — Spaniards voted yesterday to remove the party of Prime Minister José María Aznar from power, apparently blaming his staunch backing of the U.S.-led war in Iraq for the train-bombing attacks that killed 200 people Thursday.

While polls taken before the bombings had given Aznar's Popular Party a comfortable lead, voters overwhelmingly endorsed candidates from the opposition Socialists, whose leader, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has promised to immediately withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq, redirect Spain's foreign policy away from the United States and improve relations with European allies, such as France and Germany, that had opposed the Iraq war.

The voting came just days after an estimated 11 million people took to the streets to express outrage and grief, many of them questioning whether Aznar's policies had made Spain a target for terrorism. Voter turnout, particularly among the young, was high, and many said a desire to oust Aznar's party had brought them to the polls.

The Popular Party's loss deprives the Bush administration of one of its most solid allies in Europe. Aznar has been a frequent visitor to the White House and to the president's ranch in Texas.

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that rather than prompting criticism of Spain for joining the United States in Iraq, the Madrid bombings should increase resolve to fight terrorism.

"I think what this illustrates is that there is a war on terror that must be fought," he said. "Nobody's immune. Saudi Arabia's not immune. Turkey's not immune. Indonesia's not immune. Spain is not immune, Germany, France.

"And so rather than finding fault with what Spain has done by being aggressive in the war on terror, this should redouble everyone's efforts to go after terrorist organizations of any kind."

With 99.4 percent of the ballots counted, the Socialists had 42.6 percent of the vote, about 164 seats in the next parliament, compared with 37.7 percent, and 148 seats, for the Popular Party. The results would leave the Socialists short of an absolute majority of 176 seats but would allow them to govern by forming a coalition with smaller regional parties.

While Aznar was stepping down after eight years as prime minister, the results represented a bitter personal blow. He had hoped to hand over power to his hand-picked successor, Mariano Rajoy, who had promised to continue Aznar's pro-U.S. foreign policy.
 
In recent months, controversy over the Iraq war, deeply unpopular here, had receded as a major issue, and more voters appeared focused on Spain's robust economy.

But voters turned against the Popular Party after coordinated bomb blasts ripped through four crowded commuter trains at rush hour Thursday morning. Government officials immediately blamed the Basque separatist group known as ETA, dismissing the possibility the attacks might have been carried out by Islamic extremists linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

As mounting evidence pointed to Islamic extremists, many Spaniards criticized the government for withholding information to avoid a backlash against the unpopular decision to deploy troops to Iraq.

"I think the attacks woke up the Spanish people, who did not want to join the war in Iraq," said María Requeme, 27, who works as a debt collector. She said she had long ago decided to support the Socialists but knows others who switched their votes late.

"The Popular Party accepts the result of the ballot," said Rajoy, speaking to supporters with Aznar at his side. Referring to the tumult of the past 72 hours, Rajoy added, "The Spanish people have eloquently shown that they can behave with civility, and this has been a tribute to the memory of those who have fallen."

At Socialist Party headquarters, celebrations of the unexpected victory were subdued, overshadowed by the memory of the dead and the nearly 1,500 wounded in the train attacks. Zapatero called for a minute of silence for the victims, and then said: "Today, the Spanish people have spoken, with a massive turnout. They have said they want a government of change."

"My immediate priority will be to combat all kinds of terrorism," Zapatero said. "The terrorists must know that they will confront all of us together. We will win."

Among government officials and supporters, there was bitterness at the notion that by stoking popular fears, the attackers who planted the bombs might have altered the result of the election and could force a staunch U.S. ally to shift its foreign policy.

"The terrorists have killed 200 people and defeated the government — they have achieved all their objectives," said Gustavo de Arustegui, a Popular Party member of parliament and foreign-policy spokesman for the government.

"I think the terrorist attacks were politically planned," he said. "We have transformed terrorists into political actors with this."

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

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