Elections, cojones!

The last 4 years I've seen something like 7 general elections. "Hey!" I hear you say, "You’re Dutch; your government usually doesn't last longer than 2 years so that's not much!" Right, okay, most of them were in the Netherlands but I've also seen some abroad. I've seen George W. Bush get re-elected, Alan Garcia get a second chance to rob a country, Jan Peter Balkenende get three (or four?) new tries... and now I'm up to see José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and his Partido Socialista Obrero Español try to win an election without the "help" of Al-Qaeda.

Four years after the 11-M train bombings it's election time again in Spain. However, one's biggest worry while taking public transport today in the Capital isn't Muslim fundamentalism. I've noticed the trains got a lot busier the last two weeks. Also, they break down more often. And with busier I mean: imagine a loaded train platform getting in a completely full train, every station. And with breaking down I mean: standing in such a train with all these people, doors closed and no movement at all for 15 minutes.

I commented this to Nieves, our secretary, and she explained me who are the "terrorists" responsible for this: The powerful syndicates, opposed to either the PSOE, the Partido Popular, or the public in general. Their philosophy: make daily life hard and people will revolt. Their actions: sabotaging the metro, molesting train drivers and blocking all other public services. They say the loaded trains are just the beginning.

Spain, for being a European country, isn't as European as you might think. Terrorism, for instance, isn't necessarily linked with Islam. I've been brainwashed enough to think about guys with beards and swords whenever I read "terrorists" on CNN, but here usually it refers to the Batasuna and its Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (thanks Wikipedia). In the newspaper today it said that because a company moved to a new location, the number of protests in that street would increase with 380. Yes, that means more than 1 different protest against the same company on some days on top of the existing protests! Spain, until just over 30 years ago, used to be a Fascist country in the pre-Industrial era.

I think, after the extremely boring elections in the US (alright, Times Square was fun), the smooth elections in Peru (just 2 tanks!) and well... the always useless elections in the Netherlands, Spain might for the first time bring some election-fun. I hope they have ley seca and I hope nobody gets killed, but I also hope to see some real action. Otherwise I'll move to Myanmar to witness the first democratic elections there. Promised.