The gist of it is that in March 11th, 2004, there was a terrorist attack on madrid, Spain, pertaining coordinating bombings on four trains. At the time, a conservative party was in power, with prime minister Aznar (Bush's wannabe best friend, and ally in Iraq), and from the very beginning, the evidence pointed very strongly to islamic terrorism. But the national elections were three days away, the conservative party pushed for a narrative of domestic terrorism being responsible, and later, when that narrative just couldn't stand on its own, for one about a conspiracy being afoot.
Like, this is (obviously) after 9/11 (11S here), but Bush and the conservative party here were at different times of their term so it makes sense that the strategy was different. They probably thought they couldn't pull off what bush did in such a short time (building an ideology around The Enemy like that). And in part... maybe? I was very young (7yo) and my immediate circle was left-leaning, so I probably have a skewed version of things, but society did hold Aznar accountable for the attacks. The impression was that although the war in Iraq had its detractors, especially from the left, maybe the average citizen didn't think much about it one way or the other, but after that it was... why are we involed there in the first place? How is that any of our business? Why did Aznar drag us into this, and what have been the consequences of him trying to play in bigger leagues?
But there's a lot suggesting that it was the lie that broke the camel's back. The protests for the next few days particularly demanded to know WHO was behind the attacks, hearing the contradictory versions and noticing how flimsy the one offered by the conservatives was. And besides, aznar was the leader of the party, but he wasn't the electoral candidate, Mariano Rajoy was (he has his issues too, that filthy thief, but we're not getting into him now lol. The current leader of the party is friendly with drug lords and the former one likely faked his masters degree so there's a lot going in there). Point being, I think admitting the truth and building a strategy around it, imo, would've worked better than the lie did.
Because the lie was and continues to be brazen. To this day, I haven't heard a single member of the popular party (that's what the traditional conservatives here call themselves, btw) state without caveats that it was not ETA (the domestic terrorist group, now long dismantled, but still used by the conservatives as a discoursive tool). IIRC, about 10 years ago Aznar published a book where he still insisted of the contrary. The closest I've seen was in an interview today, when the former foreign affairs minister of the party said he "doesn't believe in the conspiracy theory, never did" and "always said so, always wrote so" well I haven't read your books sir, but I very much doubt that, because the party line WAS lying, long past when it was even remotely reasonable because the very same morning of the attacks, the investigators had ruled out your version. Investigators who were later harassed for contradicting that party line, btw.
He also says claims that the party didn't lie, that there was a "miscommunication" and that there was NO attempt on their part to use this attack for political gain, either before the election or during the next term, and look. I'm willing to buy the first part. I'm skeptical, but let's go with it. let's say they first really thought it was ETA for a hot minute, and just couldn't wait to get it out no matter how counterproductive that would've been for an investigation. Let's say they then received an alternate version, one backed by the evidence and then... what? Insisted on their own? Desperately tried to convince the citizens of it? All but accused their rivals of complicity in the attack? And maintained that version, more or less explicitly, for all these years? After the terrorist cell was apprehended the next month, even?
Where are the apologies? Where are the acknowledgementes of all the incredibly bold lies? (like how there was "evidence" pointed to ETA, and they were talking, among other disproven facts, about a CD from a music band of the same geographical region as the terrorist group... ok). Why is aznar still declining to talk about it this year, when everyone and their mother has something to say about this anniversary. Come the fuck on, sir.
Moving on from that, the thing here is. I have very mixed feelings on my country, but this is a period where I look back to and can feel some pride for my compatriots, tbh. They didn't let themselves be fooled, they didn't let themselves be used like tools for the conservative party. The socialist party won the election and they retired the troops from Iraq immediately, as promised, and very much followed a very different strategy from Bush's (who called prime minister Zapatero to tell him he was very disappointed. Zapatero is a true gentleman and wouldn't have told him where he could shove his disappointment, but I sure wish he had).
And I wonder where the fuck did that go lmao. Because it sure isn't like that with their current leadership, both national (mr drug lord bestie) or regional (ms trump lite, probably the next party leader... she already took down the previous one because he tried to go after her corrupt brother so. Give it time). I don't think we've gotten dumber but it sure feels like that sometimes. I think the real issue is that conservatives are radicalised and they will accept anything that allows them to attack The Enemy (mostly internal, this time they succeeded in that, I guess). said enemy being leftists, queers, feminists, immigrants (I did say mostly), regionalists, and so on.
And now you have people in that party straight up saying prime minister Sánchez is an ally of Hamas for speaking out against Israel and their followers regurgitating that shit without seemingly one thought inside their skulls, but again, stupidity is not the damn issue here.
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