Word: zapatero
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Over the next four years, the breach widened. Zapatero's first move after taking office was to pull Spain's troops out of Iraq - a measure that was one of the major planks of his campaign platform, but which his opponents interpreted as capitulation to al-Qaeda's demands. In an effort to both clear its own name and, no doubt, undermine support for the Socialists, the PP continued to insist that ETA had a hand in the attacks, and that the government was covering it up. (See pictures of al-Qaeda...
Over the course of Zapatero's first term, the PP requested that the government answer hundreds of questions about the alleged cover-up, while party leader Mariano Rajoy went so far as to suggest that a key piece of physical evidence - a backpack loaded with explosives - may have been planted in order to lend credence to the Islamist theory. These doubts were fanned by the center-right newspaper El Mundo, and Catholic radio station COPE into a full-fledged conspiracy campaign. Yet even after the country's national court found absolutely no connection between ETA and the Madrid attacks, Rajoy...
Many used the word crispación to describe the hostility between the two parties that prevented both civil discourse and legislative collaboration. On a lot of the issues that defined Zapatero's first term - gay marriage, the liberalization of divorce, civic education, compensation for victims of the Franco regime - it is unlikely that the conservative PP would have reached a compromise with the administration. But the ferocity of their protests suggested to many that more than ideological differences were in play. "Crispacíon was a tactical strategy," says former Socialist spokesman Diego López Garrido, today...
...time, some observers, such as sociologist and ETA specialist Ignacio Sanchéz-Cuenca saw the vitriol as "limiting Zapatero's room to maneuver" in the peace talks. The author Chislett agrees. "To get a deal with terrorists, you have to be able to bend the rules a little," he says. "Crispación meant that Zapatero couldn't do that. And the peace deal has gone out the window...
...accounts, the political hostility that has its roots in March 11, 2004 has diminished significantly in the last few months, and the second Zapatero administration has managed to achieve some collaboration with the Popular Party on pressing economic matters. "Time is a healer," says Savater. "Things have lost their ferocity...