The saddening evolution of the Victims' Association.

Today Jose Maria Aznar reappeared in public after his hardline allies removed the moderates from PP's Congressional lists for the May 9 election. He did so in the annual convention of the Association of the Victims of Terrorism, a body that aims at representing the interests of ETA victims. And as it has become customary, Aznar directly accused President Zapatero of lying to the victims about the peace process and directly asking for the victims' vote for PP in the coming election.

Frankly, I am not surprised at all. Since he lost the last election Aznar has wondered the streets full of resentment against Zapatero and taking on any job that would offer him an opportunity to spread his messianic propositions and his catastrophist view on the current government. What saddened me is how an association which every Spaniard has always respected and cared for has been led by a man, Francisco Alcaraz, into the most sectarian positions ever conceived in Spain about the Basque conflict. Alcaraz, in perfect synchronization with PP officials, has used insult and lies to attack Zapatero using the suffering of terrorist victims as a platform to reach out to the electorate. Both PP and Alcaraz have used the victims suffering and resentment to mobilise them against PSOE just to win votes from an electorate which is not immune to the victims' sensivitivy.
The invitation extended to Aznar today to openly request the vote for Rajoy in March, and the kind of insults heard today in the convention are clear evidence of how the Right in Spain has ditched parliamentary politics for neo-con like mass mobilisation in the streets.

I cannot but feel extremely sad that the suffering of so many victims and the sympathy their personal suffering produces in the Spanish public is being used by a political party so cheaply for the first time in the history of Spanish democracy. I, together with many leftwing voters, are united against ETA and wholeheartedly support the victims in their suffering and quest for justice. And we are hurt that PP is trying to divide us for a handful of votes.

I leave you with some of the statements said today in the conference:

Aznar: (about President Zapatero) 'he lacks courage and has too much arrogance and sectarism on him'.
'You should think extremely well about if you want to give your vote to someone that has lied to you on an issue as basic as (sic) terrorism'.
(On the peace process) 'He lied to the Spanish people'.

Alcaraz (President of the Victims' Association): (about President Zapatero) 'he obtained an electoral benefit out of 192 killings, we will be alert for the next trick' (referring to the Madrid bombings victims- their association refused to join Alcaraz's one and created an independent one called Victims of the 11-M).

Maria del Carmen Heras (widow of Fernando Mugica, killed by ETA in 1996): (about President Zapatero) 'he gained power the way we all know about, full of hatred for the death of his grandfather in the Civil War' (Zapatero's grandfather was executed by Franco's forces during the Civil War in Spain).