Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will become the first Spanish prime minister to be questioned by a parliamentary commission Monday when he gives his version of events surrounding the Madrid train bombings.
The March 11 atrocity — which struck three days before a general election — helped catapult Zapatero, an underdog Socialist, into office, ousting a pro-U.S. conservative party that had led in all the public opinion polls.
Islamic militants killed 191 people with 10 bombs that exploded aboard four packed commuter trains that morning, claiming it as al-Qaida’s revenge for Spain sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Immediately after taking office, Zapatero withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq, making good on a long-held campaign promise.
Zapatero is expected to invite all political parties to join an expanded new agreement on fighting international terrorism, one he might later present to other European Union member states.
Conservatives get chance at Zapatero
Zapatero’s testimony is likely to be less combative than that of his predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, who spent 11 hours testifying Nov. 29, when he denied the attacks were linked to his unpopular decision to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq and send in troops after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Aznar’s conservative Popular Party (PP) will have the chance to grill Zapatero about the dramatic days between March 11 and March 14, when the PP was erroneously blaming the attacks on the Basque separatist group ETA.
PP politicians privately say they will question Zapatero about whether his Socialist Party played any role in the illegal demonstrations outside its offices that sprang up on election eve and contributed to the defeat of PP candidate Mariano Rajoy.
Angry crowds accused the PP government of lying about who was responsible for the attacks for political gain, a charge denied by Aznar and others who say they took their leads from police.
Zapatero also could face questions about who kept him informed about the investigation before the vote to see whether he was the source of press leaks, some of them wildly off the mark — that undermined the credibility of the outgoing Aznar government.