The following is from a National Public Radio report Tuesday on the Spanish election:
Yesterday Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, told an Italian newspaper that the Spanish elections showed that force is not the answer to resolving conflicts with terrorists. Such sentiment angers commentator Pilar Rahola. She’s critical of Europe for letting America and Britain fight the war against terrorism on their own. Rahola is a former lawmaker with Esquerra Republicana (Republican Left). It’s a far leftist Catalunyan faction that increased its size eight-fold in this election and may be a candidate for Zapatero’s ruling coalition.
“What I’m saying is that we in the European left, and particularly the Spanish left, must learn the enormous lesson from this tragedy in Madrid,” she said.
Rahola thinks Zapatero supporters are mistaken if they think that Spain will be safe from Islamic terrorism when the troops come home from Iraq.
Unfortunately I can’t read any of the Catalunyan or Spanish websites that refer to Rahola and Esquerra Republicana, but I’d be interested to find out more. Can anyone help?
