There has been growing dissent in Spain with the Aznar's policies, especially when he decided to side with Bush and Blair on the Iraq issue. I would say a large majority of Spaniards did not support the government's role in sending troops and support to Iraq; like France, post-Franco Spain has never been well-known for looking outside it's borders on issues of security, given that ETA consumes a fair amount of their security and surveillance resources. To put it bluntly, Spain has felt that they have their own problems to take care of and Iraq, right or wrong, wasn't something that they should have stuck their noses in if it wasn't totally handled through the UN. Much of the aggrivation died down after the Spanish troops were sent, though. Aznar took a risk sending troops and support into Iraq against popular opinion as did Blair; doing the right thing isn't necessarily doing the popular thing and through a wicked set of events it has turned around and gutted the Popular Party...
Also, Aznar was set to step down from his position and let Rajoy run for election. It was the Popular Party that got ousted, not Aznar.
I won't go into the personal effect this bombing has had on my wife and her family (they are Spanish and lived there until '96), but the impact on the Spaniards was immense. I hate to stereotype, but I'm really not when I say that Spaniards are VERY emotional people; feeling rather than logic and serious thought guides many aspects of their lives. Given this, the vote is of no surprise to me at all, as it was an emotional protest vote more than a policy vote. I understand why it happened (youth voter turnout was said to be of record proportion and certainly had more in common with the Socialist Party than the Popular Party) though I can't say I applaud the message it now sends to every wacko terrorist group on the globe. I know nothing of the upcoming Prime Minister, though having terrorists attack your country, it's people and it's way of life and then telling the press that Spain is likely packing up their troops and high-tailing it out of Iraq is just about the worst message I can think of giving, short of inviting the Taliban in as policy advisors...
Come November 14th of this year, John Kerry's best ally in the election may be Al-Qaeda, especially if they try the same thing here. I can totally see something like this happening in the US.
