Aznar's last meeting with Europe's leaders

Aznar attended his last meeting with European leaders today, when the EU met to discuss issues related to the new European Union Constitution and terrorism. According to el Pais, European leaders have appealed to the United Nations to adopt a greater role in the transition of Iraq.

Aznar has appeared in a press conference after the meeting to reiterate his position against withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq. He repeated that governments should not be seen to be giving in to terrorism - despite the fact that international public opinion is increasingly rejecting the thesis that Zapatero will take a soft line on terrorism and is accepting the fact that his decision to withdraw troops from Iraq was part of the PSOE manifesto long before the terrorist attacks in Madrid. Spanish troops will remain in Iraq under the Socialist government if the United Nations is in control of the transition by June.

Yesterday, in his first meeting with Zapatero since the elections (and, as many Spanish reporters stated today, in the first meeting to be conceded to Zapatero by the Spanish President in the past 14 months even though the Socialist leader asked to have an audience with Spain's outgoing President on various occasions last year), Aznar asked the future President of Spain to submit in writing his opinion about what should happen next month when the Spanish soldiers in Iraq should be relieved by colleages from Spain. The future Defense Minister, Jose Bono, has said today that it is the first time that an outgoing government has ever asked for a written document to determine an incoming government's policy on something which has already been decided anyway.

Today the PSOE held its first executive meeting since the last elections. Zapatero repeated his determination to respect all opinions, whether or not they coincide with Socialist policies, but he rejected the thesis that the Spanish electorate's vote was determined by terrorism.

Meanwhile, just when Spring appeared to have arrived in Spain, suddenly the weather has taken a turn for the worse and there is snow on mountains overlooking Alicante. Bad weather is expected to continue for at least two days, and for the next week weather will be unsettled, so all holidaymakers planning on coming to the Mediterranean for their Easter holidays are advised to include at least one jersey and a waterproof in their suitcase.

Spain's Royal Family

All news bulletins last night and all Spanish newspapers this morning acknowledge the role of the King and Queen of Spain in the mass held in Madrid yesterday for the victims of the Madrid bombing and indeed throughout the last two weeks. The Spanish royal family is quite unique in the way they are respected and loved by their population, and when you see them act as they did yesterday, and in fact as they have done throughout the past two weeks, it is easy to see why.

King Juan Carlos played a fundamental role in Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy in reconciling the Spanish military and different political parties, and providing Spain with a figure of authority who firmly supported the creation of a democratic Spanish State. When Spain suffered its coup d'etat in 1981 and the military held government leaders hostage in the parliament, King Juan Carlos addressed the nation on television and radio, assuring Spanish people that the coup would fail and democracy would prevail, and ordering the Spanish military supporting the coup to surrender their arms and respect the constitution. He also played a key role in setting up an emergency substitute constitutional government until the political leaders were released by the military.

More recently, on the same day of the terrorist attacks, the King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, Prince Felipe and his fiance Letizia all visited victims in the hospitals. They, and the princesses (who both work) have returned to the hospitals various times since, often without the press being told beforehand, according to witnesses, as well as chatting to patients, hospital staff and families, the King has even encouraged and helped victims to stand up and start walking again. In his speech to the nation on the day of the terrorist attack, the King was the only political leader who declined to name ETA as the perpetrator of the attacks.
The Prince and his fiance have cancelled all parties and firework displays scheduled to precede and follow their wedding in May, and have said that all the money that was going to be spent on these festivities will go to the victims families fund. Yesterday after the mass, the King ignored protocol and instead of walking out of the cathedral after the blessing, he and the Queen, followed by the other members of their family, greeted the victims family members one by one for over half an hour, offering their best wishes and commiserations and sharing in their grief. All members of the Royal family wept with the families. Even if you have your reservations about monarchies in general, especially given the behaviour and distant attitudes of some royal families across Europe, you cannot deny the ability of the Spanish Royal Family to get involved in national events and to succeed in getting close to the people and being respected by the vast majority of Spaniards.

Mass in Madrid

Today a state funeral was held in Madrid to honour the vicitims of the 11 M terrorist attack. Representatives of the victims' families, world leaders, Spanish political leaders and the Spanish royal family joined together to mourn the dead. A massive white sheet bearing a black ribbon (the sign of mourning which is still desplayed in shop, flat and car windows throughout Madrid) hung behind the altar, and the archbishop of Madrid led the mass. Giant television screens were erected in several popular locations in the city to carry the ceremony live and the Mass brought much of Madrid to a standstill.

Jose Luis Zapatero had meetings today with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President, Jacques Chirac, Polish President Leszek Miller, US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, German President Gerhard Schroeder. According to Cadena Ser, the Socialist leader used these meetings to explain his policy regarding the removal of Spanish troops from Iraq. He stressed that withdrawel will only go ahead if the United Nations is not in charge of the transition in Iraq by 30th June, and that this decision should not be interpreted as taking a soft line on terrorism. Zapatero told world leaders that the fight against terrorism remains top priority for the Socialist Party.

Miguel Angel Moratinos, thought by many to be the probable Foreign Affairs Minister in the Socialist Government, appeared before the press after Zapatero's meeting with Colin Powell and told reporters that the US Secretary of State had offered to negotiate with Zapatero the future role of the UN in Iraq. Meanwhile, according to Moratinos, Zapatero urged Tony Blair to use Britain's role in the UN Security Council to try to negotiate within the next three months handing over control of the situation in Iraq to the United Nations.

Spanish media

Aznar gave his first interview since the elections yesterday. The interview was broadcast on Tele Cinco and Aznar spoke about the election defeat, Zapatero's intention to withdraw the Spanish troops from Iraq, and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Madrid. He denied any attempt to manipulate public opinion, and said that people who claimed the contrary were "vile" and "slandalous". He reiterated that his government has nothing to hide. He repeated his conviction that the decision to participate in the war against Iraq was the right one, and that it would be a mistake to bring Spanish troops home now. Although Aznar didn't acknowledge the fact that he and his government had made any mistakes, political commentators last night and this morning agree that he was much quieter and less agressive than in previous interviews.

It is interesting that the out-going President conceded his first interview to Tele Cinco (seen by many as one of the few objective television channels in Spain), rather than to one of the pro-PP television channels, which were accused of manipulating news and biased reporting in favour of the PP throughout this legislature and especially during the election campaign. The fact that Aznar chose Tele Cinco may suggest that he wants to get his arguments over to viewers who often criticise his methods and reject the political reporting methods used by the other television channels over the past few years.

Since the elections, employees of Grupo Radiotelevision Espanola (the state television and radio company) and Antena 3 (private, pro-PP) have for the first time openly criticised the way they were supposedly forced to cover news items with a strong bias in favor of the Popular Party. Zapatero has promised to pass a law to prevent government manipulation of state television and it is to be hoped that he keeps his promise. Aznar made the same promise 8 years ago before winning the 1996 election which bought him to power, but once he became President, the benefits of having a media platform from which to launch policies obviously outweighed the disadvantages from the point of view of democracy and independent information. Hopefully the new President of Spain will not make the same mistake. The sooner Spain has a more independent media, the better.

Meanwhile, this morning the judge leading the investigation into the terrorist attacks in Madrid has filed charges against four more suspects and ordered for them to be detained pending further investigation. One of the four men is Spanish. He is a retired miner who, according to news reports, has admitted supplying the terrorists with dynamite but claims he didn't know what they were going to use it for.

Various news items in Spain

This week the newly elected members of the Spanish parliament will start registration procedures in the Congress, prior to the creation of the new Government. 169 (48%) of the 350 MPs are newly elected members. The party with the biggest percentage of newcomers is the winning Socialist party - 96 of the PSOE members of parliament are new (53%) which is good news for people anxious for Zapatero to continue with the party's renovation from within, (source: Cadena Ser). Meanwhile according to a poll carried out by Cadena Ser, only 8% voters changed their vote after the 11 M attack.

A special law, Royal Decree, has been passed and gives any illegal immigrants in Spain affected by the terrorist attacks in Madrid 6 months, as from today, to legalise their situation. The day after the bombings, Government spokesmen said that all illegal immigrants affected by the attacks (including victims' families) would be granted Spanish residence. This announcement was made as it became clear that many illegal immigrants were holding back from going to look for family members in hospitals (or IFEMA where the bodies of people killed were taken), because they were scared of being discovered by the authorities. According to El Mundo, authorities now have quite a job on their hands, as hundreds of immigrants come forward claiming that they have been affected in some way by the train bombs.

This morning's news in Spain, as probably everywhere, (on internet, radio, tv) is dominated by the assassination by Israel of the founder of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, which is bound to escalate violence even further in that sad, punished region. Palestinian militants have already warned that with this murder, Israel has "opened the gates of hell" and should expect swift and bloody retaliation. It is difficult to know what Sharon and his government hope to achieve with acts like these, which only add further instability to the region and, ultimately, make it easier for extremist Islamic groups (which support terrorist crimes such as the one carried out in Madrid) to draw furious young people to their cause.

Stephen Frears in Spain

Stephen Frears is in Spain this week promoting his new film The Deal and el Pais publishes an interview with him today. According to the journalist who interviewed him, Frears answers questions politely but without enthusiasm, except when he is asked about politics and Blair - "Blair really has a strange way of choosing his friends.... Aznar, Bush, Berlusconi.... I would never choose people like that as my friends. Mind you, if you think about it, he hasn't got very many friends at all and quite frankly, as Prime Minister, he ought to have more. He could do with a good friend.... and a good therapist". The Deal is about British politics before the 1996 elections and especially about the relationship and rivalry between Blair and Gordon Brown. An actor takes the part of Blair, although Frears claims that the real Blair is an excellent actor himself: "If he wasn't such a good actor, he would probably be a much better Prime Minister. This is his great tragedy: he's so good at acting that he ends up convincing himself. I think it has got something to do with his training as a lawyer. He's used to defending cases whether or not he agrees with them morally"

This is what the Costa Blanca News makes of the recent elections here in Spain.

Spain's new Government will be sworn in in April

Jesus Caldera, one of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's closest colleagues and the MP responsible for negotiating the transfer of power from the Popular Party to the recently elected PSOE, said today that the new Government would be sworn in between 22nd and 28th April, if not before (see El Mundo).

According to El Pais, the dinamite used in the terrorist attacks in Madrid last week was robbed from a mine in Asturias last month. It is thought that a Spanish person exchanged some explosives for drugs He reportedly received drugs in return. According to the paper, he insists he only led the Moroccans to the warehouse and did not help with the robbery or know the Moroccans had Islamic extremist links.