It’s not just the sprinkling of No al PP signs at what is meant to be an ecumenical anti-terrorism fest: I fail to understand the whole concept of marching in large groups, carrying the same placards and chanting the same slogans in order to protest intolerance of the individual on the part of ETA and al-Qaeda.
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I have to say I felt the same, so I didn’t go. I understand the feeling of general impotence at what happened – but we shouldn’t just allow ourselves to get over it by having an indulgent group march. Protesting against the government for going to war is one thing. Marching to show the terrorists that we don’t like it is quite another. They already know we don’t like it – that’s why they do it. Solidarity with Madrid is a given – we shouldn’t have to take to the streets to make it known.
The choice of the word ‘constitution’ in the official demonstration banner implicitly blames ETA for the attacks, a hypothesis far from proven, and one which most benefits PP election interests. According to Reuters, foreign secretary Ana Palacios posted communiques to Spain’s ambassadors instructing them to push the ETA hypothesis. Precisely because this is going on, it is not surprising that demonstrators voiced alternative views at the demo. Both Rato and Carod were pilloried by different factions in Barcelona last night. A reductionist, unitarian stance doesn’t reflect the range of sentiments and absence of clear blame right now.
It’s natural to expect it to be ETA, what with the 500kg Madrid-bound bomb found a couple of weeks back, but I think it’s safe to assume that Osama also isn’t a great admirer of the Spanish constitution. Yep, the PP (and Palacio in particular) are crap at handling the media and are phenomenally stupid to have allowed (or encouraged, if you prefer) the birth of the notion that they would prefer an ETA bomb. However, the opposition – with probably even less evidence – are going round claiming even more firmly that it was Mr Bin. Finally, I’m told that people were stoning Rato. That’s deeply shameful.