Madrid
Spain affirmed its newfound opposition to the Iraq war this week as it welcomed the leaders of war opponents France and Germany. “The Old Europe is like new,” said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero. Under Zapatero’s predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, Spain was a firm ally of the U.S. in the Iraq war, joining many Eastern European countries in what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called “New Europe.” But Spain’s parliamentary election this spring, held just after the terrorist bombings of trains in Madrid, brought the anti-war Socialists to power, and Spain quickly pulled its troops out of Iraq.
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