The immediate aftermath of the bombings and the lead-up to the trial have been defining moments in Spanish politics. As the horror of 11-M became apparent, two versions of what had happened unfolded on Spanish TV screens. The state-owned TVE network and the majority of commercial channels echoed the government line that the bombings were undoubtedly the work of the Basque terrorist group ETA. With the general election just days away, José María Aznar’s PP government insisted from the outset that ETA was responsible, even as evidence to the contrary rapidly mounted up. The logic was that admitting the bombs had been planted by Islamic fundamentalists would have linked the attacks to Spain’s involvement in the invasion of Iraq—an issue almost 90 percent of the country had been opposed to in the first place.
The Spanish intelligence services almost immediately concluded it was an Islamic terrorist group, according to a report by the European Security and Intelligence Centre, but were categorically instructed to deny it. President Aznar ordered all foreign embassies to support the ETA version and personally called several newspaper editors to ask for their support. Even when ETA had officially denied responsibility for the attacks, the PP continued to peddle the theory. Meanwhile, websites, blogs and many regional channels such as Catalunya’s TV3 were reporting increasing circumstantial evidence that pointed towards an Islamic terrorist group.
The pre-election timing of the event meant the bombers seemingly hoped to sway votes in favour of the Socialist party (PSOE), who had promised to withdraw troops from Iraq if elected. Exactly how much influence the attack had on the election is hard to gauge, but in the end José Luis Zapatero’s PSOE party won and José María Aznar’s PP party bowed out in disgrace. Afterwards, Zapatero revealed to the commission investigating the bombings that his government arrived in office to find all computer records relating to the period during the bombings and election had been permanently deleted. All that remained was a €12,000 bill from an IT firm for erasing the files.
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