Spain World Cup fiesta goes wild, boosts unity

MADRID (AP):

Spain erupted with its biggest fiesta in memory yesterday when its football team returned to a jubilant nation after winning the World Cup, giving elated Spaniards a break from months of economic gloom and political squabbling.

Hundreds of thousands of people - if not more - jammed Madrid's historic avenues as an open-air bus ferried the national team down stately avenues to cheers from Spaniards decked out in a sea of red and yellow, the colours of the Spanish flag.

The celebration in Madrid, where national unity is at its strongest, was expected. But there were striking examples of support from unlikely places: The well-off Catalonia region, which has long sought greater autonomy, and the separatist Basque region, where anything pro-Spain is often shunned.

The massive Madrid street party came after players visited Madrid's Royal Palace, normally used only for dreary state affairs. But the team chatted and had drinks with King Juan Carlos, who hugged many players and gave coach Vicente del Bosque friendly punches on the cheek and the chest.

"You are an example of sportsmanship, nobility, good play and team work," said the king.

Proud spaniards

Team members then travelled to government headquarters, where they were greeted by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, ministers and hundreds of ecstatic children invited to the event.

"They won the cup but it belongs to all Spaniards," shouted a delighted Zapatero.

Goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas said the victory meant "Spain's name will be on top of the world for the next four years".

Next came an open-air bus ride through Madrid's historic centre, the epicentre of the celebration for the second day in a row. Crowds overflowed into the street and surrounded the team bus, virtually all sporting the red and yellow national colours along the five-kilometre (three-mile) route as the bus crawled through the crowd with the players waving and raising the gold World Cup trophy into the air.

At the route's end, firefighters hosed down fans sweltering in 36 Celsius (96 Fahrenheit) evening heat.

As the parade snaked down the Gran Via in the heart of Madrid, Spanish air force fighter jets flew overhead spewing out the colours of the national flag.

On the bus, the players waved flags and saluted the screaming fans below. Casillas raised a red-and-yellow carton cut-out of Octopus Paul, the mollusk from the German zoo that predicted Spain's victory.

"For us Spaniards this is important. It is a way of showing that Spain is united," said Roberto Lopez, 48, Madrid car salesman. "It's not Galicia on one side and Catalonia on the other."

Juan Mateos, a 35-year-old civil servant described the celebrations as "a bit of anesthetic to forget about our problems".

The spectacle was "very important, it helps us forget a lot of things, like the economic crisis, for example, or people's domestic issues," said Javier Sanchez, a 42-year-old photographer from Madrid.

But will the ecstasy last? Could this be Spain's moment to unite under a single flag? Or is it a fleeting instance of patriotism following near economic chaos when the country was targeted as one of the European nations most likely to default on debt like Greece?

Spain has been depressed by a debt crisis, 20 per cent unemployment and nationalist regions fighting to separate from the country or at least win much greater autonomy and near-nation status.

While the spotlight was on Madrid, the win led to a rare sight in the Catalonia region's capital of Barcelona: Spanish flags waving side by side with Catalonia's own red-and-yellow flag.

"It has been very strange, but now it is being tolerated," said Saray Lozano, a 31-year-old taxi driver from Barcelona. "If it weren't for football, you might get rocks thrown at you" for displaying Spain's national symbol.

Bringing unity

About 75,000 people celebrated the win in Barcelona, and about 2,000 people waved Spanish flags and wore the team's football jersey in the Basque city of Bilbao - actions rarely seen because of the violent campaign led by the separatist group ETA since 1968 to gain independence from Spain.

Just wearing the jersey on the streets of Bilbao before the win was a sure way to get insulted and risk assault.

But experts said the idea of Spain overcoming its internal divisions and economic woes because of the World Cup is unlikely to become reality. In and around Bilbao, authorities blamed sabotage for an electrical outage that cancelled an open-air broadcast of the final game and several people supporting the national team were attacked by separatists.

"I wouldn't have thought the euphoria over the football will last very long," said Paul Preston, a Spain expert and history professor at the London School of Economics.

Contributing to enthusiasm from unlikely places was the fact that several of Spain's best players are from Catalonia - Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique.

The team also included superstar Xabi Alonso from the Basque region.

During the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco (1939-1975), Catalans, Basques and others were forbidden from speaking their languages and it was illegal to publish books in those languages. Spain did not change its flag after becoming a democracy.

The victory, however, brought at least some Spaniards from diverse backgrounds together, meaning it accomplished "unfinished business for Spain, so it's been good for everyone," said Soledad Gonzalez, 51, a security guard from Madrid.

She added: "I hope that, God willing, finally, the Spanish flag means being Spanish and not being a fascist, as was the case not so long ago."