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The fact that the government was obviously and blatantly withholding information, if not plain lying, was IMHO crucial to how thgings developed. While the government-controlled media was insisting it was ETA, SER and CNN were broadcasting new evidence which pointed to Al Qaeda. The government, rather than ackowledge what was happening decided to cover it up and lie. The minister of foreign affairs gave instructions to ambassadors to assert categorically that it was ETA and this in spite of all evidence to the contrary. In the UNSC Spain presented a resolution blaming ETA and other countries balked and proposed condemning terrorism. The government of the USA became a part to this lie when it supported the resolution when they had evidence pointing to AQ, and, in fact, it was in the interests of the USA that it was AQ. Spain asked the US government for support in passing this lie in order to get reelected and the US goverment complied knowing they were lying. Spain and the USA gave their assurances that they knew it was ETA and on that word the resolution was passed. Today (16), Spain has presented a letter of apology to the UN for this although it blames faulty information rather than the evident truth that it was a deliberate lie.
Saturday afternoon and evening the mood in Spain was one of rage with the government. People were watching SER and CNN saying there was evidence pointing to Al Qaeda and the government media was still pointing at ETA in spite of all the evidence. People in Madrid began gathering in front of the HQ of the PP demanding information. Mobile phones started buzzing as the message was passed on with SMS. "Pasalo" (pass it on) became the byword and the message was passed aorund and soon there were thousands gathering at the party HQ. That is how I found out. I got an SMS on my mobile saying to tune to CNN or SER and that people were concentrating at the HQ of the PP. "Pasalo". The PP were getting alarmed as they saw they could not control the information or keep spinning it. Their candidate Rajoy made a huge mistake: he went on TV and said those concentrating in front of their HQ were anti-democratically trying to influence the elections. You could feel the insecurity and fear in his voice. A few hours or days earlier he was counting on victory and now he felt it was slipping away. Well, if there was anybody left who did not know about what was happening, now they knew. And the government sounded insecure which is the last thing you need in a time of crisis. People kept converging there and so did riot police. There was some apprehension that the government might use the police but the whole thing was peaceful and the government did not make the mistake of trying to use the police to dissolve the demonstration. At about 11 PM the people decided to march to the Puerta del Sol where the local government is located. At 1 am when I left the demonstration was still going strong.
at the PP HQ and by 9 PM the demonstration is massive. 
It looks like the riot police might be getting ready to act and the
At about 11 PM the demonstration moved to Puerta del Sol
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