Stay classy, Aznar!

How does a fascist rebut the criticisms leveled against him? With ineffable style, eloquence and grace, of course!

The ex-prime minister of Spain, José María Aznar was received today in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Oviedo with cries of “fascist”, “assassin” and “terrorist” from a group of a dozen or so students.

As he exited the building, surrounded by bodyguards, Aznar responded to the shouts with a raised middle finger and a smile.

Aznar attended the event as an invitee of New Generations of Asturias, to give a conference on current events in Spain.

The young people demonstrating against him gained entry to the faculty building 20 minutes before the slated start of the conference. Security personnel kept them out of the room where the conference was to take place. The demonstrators carried placards and chanted slogans such as “Aznar should go to jail, like Vera and Barrionuevo“. They also shouted insults at him.

As Aznar was giving his speech, in which he expressed harsh criticism of the government of José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, two or three students, hidden in the crowd, stood up every ten minutes or so in protest, and were expelled by security agents.

“These gentlemen supposedly in charge of Spain today have ruined the country,” Aznar said. “They have no moral authority to say to the rest of us, who will be the majority, how to pick up the pieces and rebuild.

“The man at the head of the government of Spain did not have and does not have the qualifications to head the government,” Aznar said.

Translation mine. Linkage added.

Yep, Aznar’s an asshole. Was there ever any doubt? This IS the not-just-spiritual heir of General Franco we’re talking about here.

This is also the guy who let the train bombings of Madrid happen on his watch, and then blamed them on ETA, when in fact they were retaliation for Spanish involvement in Gulf War II. He was caught in the lie, and the outrage resulted in his ouster, and Rodríguez Zapatero’s win (on the grounds that the latter would pull Spain out of Iraq, which he promptly did. Spanish trains have been safe ever since.)

This sort of thing is, in short, perfectly in character for the Az-hole!