Shock Waves in Europe

Spanish election result a red card for rightists

For every action, there is a reaction. In stable democracies, the reaction has to come from within, expressed by the voice of the people in a process called an election. Such a process took place this weekend in Spain, where the voice of the people spoke out against the wrong committed by the Bush regime and its clique of sycophants.

Aznar was the first, to be followed later this year by Bush, then Howard, then Blair and Berlusconi, as world public opinion sets the wrongs right and re-establishes the rule of law in the international community, smashed, not just broken, by these protagonists who, for different reasons, went one step too far, setting in motion the mechanics of a process which will be extremely complicated to halt.

In attacking Iraq against the norms of international diplomacy and against the terms of international law, basing the causus belli on lies, forgery, bullying, blackmail and cajoling, Washington not only showed its true mettle, confirming the worst suspicions as to what this evil regime was capable of but also forged an alliance of murder, which places the people of Europe in danger of terrorist attacks.

For the first time in history, the Portuguese press and public opinion is full of scare stories about an impending attack by Al Qaeda in retaliation for Prime Minister Josй Barroso having backed Bush and Blair, even though there is no evidence that such an attack is more than scare-mongering and gossip.

However, the possibility is real, especially during the Euro 2004, an event which will place Portugal at the centre of attention for billions of people this June and July. Why? Because the Bush regime applied pressure to the Portuguese government to back its strategy in Iraq, in the absence of a Resolution in the UN Security Council and Portuguese government did not have the spine to stand firm.

Pressure is the new term for diplomacy in Washington, where decisions are not based on debate and dialogue and discussion - the fundamental principles of democracy, but on bullying, blackmail and belligerence. The effect of this policy on the international community is that for the first time, there is an unsigned coalition of right and reason against the evil expounded by the Bush regime and the corporative mass which circulates around it.

France's right-wing government has a new partner in this world of right and reason in Spain's Socialist Worker's Party, which will see Madrid join the fold already occupied by Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Peking and Brasilia, among others. Irrespective of internal political colours, these governments press for an international community which bases its decisions on the rule of international law, an international community which uses the UNO as the centerpiece of its decision-making process, not the pressures applied by contractors, like Halliburton, which gain vast sums in business through controlling and dictating foreign policy, which in turn gives this company contracts without even entering a tender. How democratic.

This is not democracy. It is corporate dictatorship, representing the wishes not of the people, but of a restricted elite which usurp the resources of the nation to feather their own nests, becoming richer and more powerful by the day, at the expense of the people who were duped into electing the government they support.

The Spanish election process is the beginning of a chain of events which will right the wrongs committed and return a real sense of balance to the international community. Unfortunately, the ripples caused by Washington's stone in the pond will not be so easy to calm since once terrorism sets in and people begin making money out of it, for these people it does not make sense to stop.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru