Dignity and stoicism: the Spanish people in the wake of Europe's 9-11

Many carried candles even though it was broad daylight: old and young, families and groups. Travel on trains and buses in the city was free that day, making it easier for people to attend the demonstrations. Some shouted slogans and carried signs calling for an end to ETA and Basque terrorism.

Many more held aloft their open hands, on the palms of which had been painted "Basta" and "Ya" ("Enough" and "Now"). In general there was a dignity and a resolve that was very moving.

And it was the same across the nation. The turnout was estimated by the police at more than 8 million.

In Bilbao, in the Basque country, it poured with rain but nearly 2 million stood quietly under umbrellas to mourn the deaths. In Barcelona, always more politically outspoken, there was antagonism towards Aznar and the Spanish government. In the posters and the speeches, Spain's involvement in the Iraqi war was criticised because it had made Spain a terrorist target.

Certainly, the size of the crowds across Spain recalled the demonstrations mid last year when 90 per cent of Spaniards, so the polls recorded, opposed involvement in the Iraq war.

In the past two days the Spanish elections have come and gone. The conservative government of Partido Popular, led by Jose Maria Aznar, has been defeated and there is now a Socialist majority in the Spanish Cortes.

Several arrests have been made and the Spanish Interior Ministry has identified them as part of an international terrorist movement. Certainly March 11, 2004, in Madrid will be remembered as the European equivalent of September 11 in the US.

What should be remembered, too, was the example of dignity and stoicism of the Spanish people as they confronted this terrible event.