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Man Crashes Car Into Spanish Governing Party Office-- 2nd Update

DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 10:27 AM ET 12/19/14

MADRID--A man who had lost his job in a small-town factory smashed a car containing gas cylinders into the Madrid headquarters of Spain's governing Popular Party early Friday in what police called a failed attempt to blow up the building. The attack caused no casualties but triggered rush-hour chaos in the center of the capital.

Spain's police chief, Ignacio Cosidó, said the 37-year-old driver had a history of psychiatric problems and no connection to terrorist groups. The car used, a blue Citroën Xantia, was carrying a crude explosive device consisting of two butane gas canisters and a mix of industrial fertilizer and gasoline, police said. The device didn't explode, and the driver, alone in the car, was arrested.

Two police guards outside the Popular Party headquarters and several people working inside escaped harm, party officials said, when the car crashed through the wide glass doors of the building's main entrance in the 7 a.m. darkness, crossed the lobby and came to rest at the foot of a staircase, its headlights still shining.

Spanish media reported that the driver, the son of his town's former mayor, had lost his job in a woodworking factory in the Aragón region of northern Spain about two years ago and had become angry after failing last summer to secure a government job as a forest ranger.

Police sealed off several blocks and closed two subway stations around the party headquarters, on Génova Street, as bomb-disposal experts aided by a robot disarmed the car and searched the surrounding area for other threats.

The conservative Popular Party has been in power since its leader, Mariano Rajoy, became prime minister three years ago. Its headquarters, near Madrid's main thoroughfare, Paseo de la Castellana, is under round-the-clock police protection and often is the target of street protests against high unemployment and alleged political corruption.

The main opposition Socialist Party condemned the attack. But a leading member of Podemos, a fast-growing far-left party that has capitalized on Spain's economic hardships, caused a stir with a message on Twitter that portrayed the attack as a response to government-mandated austerity.

"We shouldn't look at the consequences, but at the causes and at those responsible for people reaching that level of desperation," said the tweet from the account of Teresa Rodríguez, who represents Podemos in the European Parliament.

Ms. Rodríguez said in a follow-up tweet that she doesn't justify violent responses, but added: "We need to go further than that, and look for collective ways out of desperation."

Rafael Hernando, the Popular Party's spokesman in parliament, said in a broadcast interview he was concerned that the attack "would lead people to conclude that the economic situation is the fault of our party or any other party." He noted that under Mr. Rajoy's government, Spain's economy had emerged from recession and was creating new jobs.

Mr. Rajoy said last week that the economic crisis was "history."

Write to David Román at [e-mail] and Ana Garcia at [e-mail]

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-19-141027ET
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