El Plural, Spain

Senator John McCain and Spain's President José Luis

Rodríguez Zapatero: Has McCain snubbed Zapatero

Does McCain even know who he is?

 

 

El Plural, Spain

Spain's Conservatives Back McCain's 'Snub' of President Zapatero

 

"Always ready at a moment's notice to wrap itself in the flag of our nation and sing the national anthem - it turns out that when one really has to defend the dignity of the motherland, this Right of ours goes over to the 'enemy.'"

 

By Gerardo Rivas

 

Translated By Douglas Myers Rasmussen and Paula van de Werken

 

September 18, 2008

 

Spain - El Plural - Original Article (Spanish)

The statement by Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States, John McCain - in which he sidesteps committing to a meeting with President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the event that he wins the election - has provoked a reaction on our Right which shows only too well, that great patriotic feeling that the right-wing likes to put on display, that it flashes over and over again, and that it even claims to have a monopoly on.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

MCCAIN APPEARS TO SNUB SPAIN PRESIDENT ZAPATERO

 

Always ready at a moment's notice to wrap itself in the flag of our nation and sing the national anthem - albeit in an un-democratic way by using those symbols that are exclusively theirs, it turns out that when one really has to defend the dignity of the motherland, this Right of ours goes over to the "enemy" - that's in quotes - it crouches beneath its "great leader" - even if he isn't yet the leader - and without mercy attacks the President of our nation when he, and his country, have been, at a minimum, the victims of contempt.

 

Fascist-Spanish dictator Francisco Franco: The Partido Popular, one of the descendents of the party he founded in 1936, seems to back John McCain's apparent characterization of Spain's Socialist president, as an adversary of the United States.

 

YOUTUBE VIDEO: John McCain discusses U.S. relations with 'Latin America' and appears to snub Spain's Socialist government, Sept. 15, 00:02:39 RealVideo

[Editor's Note: The Spanish right's "symbols that are exclusively theirs," likely refers to General Francisco Franco , who was a Hitler ally and who ruled Spain with an iron fist from 1939 to 1975. The right-wing Partido Popular is a descendent of Franco's party that has moderated its positions and is quite mainstream, having held power most recently under José María Aznar. Aznar lost the 2005 election to the Socialist Zapataro, after an al-Qaeda terrorist attack on a train in Madrid killed hundreds. After taking power, Zapataro decided to pull all of Spain's troops from Iraq - resulting in a significant cooling of relations between the Bush and Zapetero governments. That is at the heart of this controversy involving McCain].

 

From these statements by John McCain, in which he avoided (four times!) the journalist's question, it became clear that he imagined Spain in some undetermined location in Latin America, and once the correspondent re-oriented the location of Spain in Europe, he went on repeating - like a broken record - that he would "meet with those leaders that are our friends, and confront those that are not."

 

In the best conservative style [Spain's center-right Partido Popular] - you can see that the Right-wing has an international way about it, and that our Right has a PhD cum laude in this - McCain suggests that we are an enemy country and, in that case, the United States - if this Republican wins - will take on Zapatero and the confront the country he leads.

 

Well then, these statements appear quite commendable of our Right-wing, considering that President Zapatero has given them cause for the same. And in this sense, a senior official of the Partido Popular, Mr. Gustavo de Arístegui - I never know whether or not to capitalize the "de" in the last names of so many people on the Right - shows his reproach for the President for his anti-American policies which, furthermore, "smell outdated," he said. Obviously, Gustavo - there, now I won't have to worry about the "de" in his last name - is in no doubt that if Zapatero had said "yes, sir" to Mr. Bush [in regard to Iraq] - Mr. McCain's fellow Republican - everything would be different and he would receive us with open arms and with the table unfolded for holding our boots [in other words, with the welcome mat out, so to speak]. 

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

The likewise-patriotic right-wing media has also reacted, and as an example we have various news headlines such as:  "McCain warns Zapatero He'll stand Up to Leaders Who Aren't Friends of the USA"; "McCain Avoids Speaking With Zapatero" or "McCain Passes on Zapatero."

 

So this is what we have. In a previous column which was written before yesterday, I criticized the Right for its xenophobia, for [PP Leader] Rajoy's statements in connection with the 180,000 foreigners who draw [or receive benefits] from INEM [The Institute de Employment, part of the Ministry of Labor and Immigration]. Today at least, I can only call him anti-patriotic. And in both cases, an extremist (of the Right). I will close the same way I did then: "When will we have a Right like God intended in this country?"

 

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US September 19, 8:29pm]