By editor
Originally published on Mon December 19, 2011 10:19 am
On March 11, 2004, al-Qaida-inspired bombers killed nearly 200 Madrid commuters on rush-hour trains. It was Europe's worst act of Islamist terrorism, and it came just three days before an election that Spain's conservatives were expected to win.
The government quickly blamed the attack on Basque separatists, but hours later, it became clear that it was Islamist militants.
"It got people mad about the government," says political scientist Jose Ignacio Wert.
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