Monday, March 12, 2007

NO QUESTION that losing the March 14 elections, only three days after the Madrid massacre, left the conservative Popular Party in shock, a shock that some people think they haven't really recovered yet. But this AP piece ends with an outright lie: "Conservatives question the Socialist government’s legitimacy, saying it took power through tragedy and unfairly refuses to resume a probe into a possible ETA link."

That's a very strong thing to say. But I live here, and have never heard such claim, quite the opposite: Popular Party officials have taken great pains to explicitely say over and over again that they are not questioning the legitimacy of the Socialist party victory, but that they want all possible lines investigated. If they are suggesting they have said it without really believing it, that's a judgement of intentions that a serious news organization can't make. I'm afraid I don't have time now to look for quotes, but actually it doesn't matter: it's the AP who should be able to back that extraordinary statement.