By Jason Moore
THE Spanish Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero was jeered and taunted by protesters during Tuesday´s official armed forces parade in Madrid. There were some quite ugly scenes and now the Spanish government wants to introduce legislation which bans any sort of protest during this event out of respect for the armed services.
I would say that the Spanish government is just trying to stop what is legal protest against a failed Spanish government. The Zapatero administration has got very hot under the collar over this issue. Let us remember that Zapatero himself staged a terrible and disrepectful protest during this same event when he refused to stand as the U.S. Stars and Stripes was paraded in protest at the Iraq war. No legislation was introduced to stop this sort of protest, so why should we start now? What the Zapatero regime has got to realise is that they are not very popular at the moment and it is only normal that people are not happy with unemployment standing at close to 4.5 million and no sign of an end to the recession. In some ways it is not the protesters who are the problem, it is Zapatero. It is a shame that protests take place during armed forces day but let us remember that it was Zapatero himself who got the ball rolling in the first place.