Spain's bruising general election campaign took another bitter turn yesterday when the parties began rowing over the civil war.
Right-wing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar called on the socialist party leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, to order his campaign team to stop making references to the conflict which killed at least 500,000 people.
His demands came after the Socialist leader of the Catalan regional government, Pasqual Maragall, warned of a "return to 1936," the year General Francisco Franco and others rebelled against the elected government, if Aznar's People's party were elected for a third time.
Franco was Spain's dictator from the end of the civil war in 1939 until his death in 1975.
Maragall claimed that if the Socialists were not elected, or if the People's party did not change its attitude to regions such as Catalonia and the Basque country that are demanding further devolution of powers, there would be a return to the atmosphere of 1936.
"We need a Spain that is capable of living calmly with its own diversity," Maragall said. "If we do not manage that, then we have failed as a country once more and we will go back -- to 1936, to the beginning of the 20th century."
Aznar said these statements had to be retracted. He added: "That is like saying that if you do not agree with me, then you are prepared to return to the times of the civil war.
"Whoever is in charge in the Socialist Party ... should retract that completely," he said.
One of the Socialists' main weapons during a campaign in which they trail some 10 points behind the People's Party has been to paint Aznar and Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as part of a new authoritarian right.
"They seem imbued with the true faith, enlisted in a new crusade between the angel and the devil," Miguel Angel Aguilar, a columnist for the left-wing El Pais daily, said of the People's Party on Tuesday.
"One could say that we are busy trying to reconstruct, as fast as possible, the two Spains that we thought had been reconciled in our [1978] Constitution after the fratricide of the civil war," he added.
Aznar has decided not to run again in next month's general elections and has handed over the reins of the People's Party to Rajoy.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese