The Madrid bombings, ten years on (Diez años despues del 11-M)...

This week, on the 11^th of March, we marked the 10^th anniversary of Spain’s worst-ever terrorist attack. On the eve of that anniversary, something happened that hasn’t been seen in this country since 2007: all the main Victims of Terrorism groups stood together in an act of remembrance of that terrible day.

It seems unbelievable that this could be the case; that such an atrocity didn’t unite the country as it did the United States after September 11. Of course, in the beginning it did, but it didn’t take long for politics to pollute things. 

On that crisp morning of March 11, 2004, fundamentalist Islamic terrorists left 13 backpacks chock-full of explosives on four of Madrid’s suburban trains (Cercanías). Using the clocks in mobile phones, the bombs were timed to go off within minutes of each other during the hora punta (rush hour). The result was 191 passengers killed and more than 1800 injured.

I wasn’t living in Madrid at the time, but I can understand the disbelief, pain and fear the Madrileños would have suffered that day. I was a London resident when, just a little over a year later, its transport system was attacked and its people killed.

The day after the attack, more than two million Madrileños braved the pouring rain to take to the streets in both homage to the victims and to furiously demand an end to terrorism in their country. Similar marches were held all over the country. The solidarity and dignity visible in the images of Madrid’s main thoroughfares filled to overflowing in a sea of umbrellas and banners are both impressive and very moving.

But the attacks took place just three days out from a general election. Up until 11-M, as the Spanish call both this day and the attacks, the incumbent government of the conservative Partido Popular (People’s Party - PP) was ahead of the opposition Socialist Party in almost all the polls.

The government’s immediate conclusion, and that of just about everyone else, put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Basque terrorist group ETA. It made sense; ETA terror had cost the lives of more than 800 people in Spain during their 30-odd years (at the time) of violent activity.

Very quickly however, literally in a matter of hours, doubts began to arise in the minds of police, security forces, terrorism experts and journalists - militant Islam started to look like a possible culprit. But the government steadfastly refused to accept that ETA was not the perpetrator and in press conference-after-press conference, press release-after-press release, it insisted ETA was to blame.

The opposition seized on this refusal in the face of the mounting evidence. Soon people were demonstrating in the streets demanding to know “¿Quien ha sido?” (“Who was it?”). And of course, the connection was made between the government’s (highly unpopular) robust support for the Iraq War and the attacks.

Whether it was the Iraq connection or the fact that the government’s belligerent denial of what was seemingly becoming undeniable led people to feel it was trying to hoodwink them, come election-day the Aznar government was swept from power.

The political lines had been drawn right through the middle of the atrocity. The Right accused the Left of using Iraq to blame the government for the terrorist attacks in order to win the election. The Left accused the Right of refusing to accept fundamentalist Islamic terrorism as the culprit because ETA was more politically advantageous. Even worse would come later.

Just over two weeks after the attacks, seven of the terrorists (all Islamists) blew themselves up in a flat in the south of Madrid when cornered by the police and security forces. Three years later, Spain's Audencia Nacional (National High Court) determined the attacks to be the work of fundamentalist Islamists and convicted 21 people. It found no evidence of the involvement of ETA or of other conspiracies.

But Aznar and some other members of the PP have never stopped insisting on ETA’s authorship of the attacks,that they had worked together with the Islamists. Another far more sinister conspiracy theory that emerged is that the attacks were in fact a Socialists coup aimed at winning the general election and that police, security forces, intelligence agencies, judges, prosecutors, witnesses and others were involved.

The attacks by the conservative media supporting these conspiracy theories were so voracious that they have been accused of costing lives. One was the wife of a local councillor who was involved in the collection of personal belongings from the train attacked in his district.

One of the backpacks collected actually contained an unexploded bomb from the attack - the phone inside of which would lead police straight to the terrorists in that flat in Madrid's south. His credibility was attacked with such viciousness that his wife committed suicide. Another was the owner of a bar who refused to put up a flyer supporting the ETA connection. He was shot dead by the person who had wanted to put up the flyer.

The politicisation of 11-M infected the different Victims of Terrorism groups, some siding with some level of conspiracy theory and others accepting the official findings. The sad result has been that over the last 10 years, on the anniversary of the attacks, separate memorials have been held by the different victims' groups, with members of the different political parties attending different memorials.

That is why those four ladies standing together at Monday’s memorial service was so significant. Perhaps it was a sign that, ten years on, the worst of politics is starting to retreat from the 11-M, giving some space for Madrid and Spain to grieve and heal in peace and dignity. I just find it a shame that it was those who have suffered the most who had to take the first steps.