Popular Party was punished for ‘fascist tactics’, says Barón Crespo

By Martin Banks and David Cronin

Date: 18/03/04

SPAIN'S top Socialist MEP has accused his country's outgoing government of resorting to tactics reminiscent of fascist rule by playing politics while the death toll was still climbing due to the Madrid terrorist attacks.

Enrique Barón Crespo, leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, berated the Popular Party (PP) for holding Basque separatists ETA responsible for the blasts, even while a growing body of evidence linked them to Islamic extremists. He agreed that perceptions the PP was trying to exploit the killings for electoral gain - and covering up evidence that Spain had been attacked due to its support for the US-led war in Iraq - cost it last Sunday's election.

"The government was wrong to blame ETA for the Madrid bombings because they didn't have forensic proof," he told European Voice. "This blaming was done in the face of other evidence of an Islamic trace, not only from Spanish intelligence but also from international security sources."

This amounted to "a deliberate misleading of the Spanish public opinion", Barón Crespo said.

"I believe too that the way the government was using the state information machinery for campaign purposes - in a manner reminiscent of dictatorial times - was one of the factors that tilted the balance in the general election. People perceived that the government was using this disinformation policy for its own interests."

Foreign Minister Ana Palacio would not comment, however, when asked if the decision to continue pointing the finger at ETA cost her party the election.

Speaking to this newspaper, she said: "This was a terrible tragedy, not just for Spain, but for the whole of Europe. It shows that the European community must now, more than ever before, rally together to fight this awful threat."

Palacio said the well-organized bombing showed that Europe still has a "lot to learn" about combating terrorism: "This is a new, very disturbing threat, one that knows no national boundaries one that is utterly indiscriminate and is carried out by people who are perfectly happy to kill anyone and everyone."

She nevertheless disagreed with those who fear Madrid-style atrocities in other EU capitals are inevitable.

"I don't go along with that," she said. "But what we now face is a major threat to the security of all of EU citizens, not just Spaniards."

Palacio claimed the US-led invasion of Iraq, backed by Spain's outgoing government, has not increased the likelihood of such attacks: "The threat was there long before the Iraq war and, sadly, it is still there," she said.

Enrique Barón Crespo, leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament and a Spanish MEP, has berated the Popular Party for blaming Basque separatist group Eta for the Madrid bombings, even while evidence was growing that linked the bombers to Islamic extremists.