European leaders condemn bomb outrage

European leaders condemned the Madrid bomb blasts as an attack on Spanish democracy.

“It is an outrageous, unjustified and unjustifiable attack on the Spanish people and Spanish democracy,” European Parliament President Pat Cox said in Strasbourg.

“There is a general election due in Spain on Sunday. What happened today is a declaration of war on democracy.

“Let Sunday show that Spanish democracy is determined to overcome terrorism,” Cox said.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, also noted the looming election. “We have all to recognise that these atrocities are a disgusting assault on the very principle of European democracy,” Straw said.

In Dublin, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who holds the EU presidency, said in a statement the “timing of the bombings was clearly designed to wreak the greatest level of havoc … and cannot be justified by any political cause.”

Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi denounced the attacks as “abominable violence that wounds every principle of civil existence” but said they would reinforce Europe’s commitment to unite to combat terrorism.

“Madrid’s tragedy reminds us of the need that ever more cohesive action by the European Union and the international community must achieve efficient and swift results in uprooting terrorism and see that the reasons of dialogue and solidarity prevail,” Ciampi said.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer expressed his horror at the attacks.

“These despicable terror acts that have claimed so many victims fill us with deep sadness and outrage,” Fischer said in Berlin.

In Copenhagen, the Danish government “expressed its deepest sympathy to the victims, their families and to the people of Spain,” said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, who added “his condemnation of such acts of terror.”