War & Peace Quote by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

“Long and difficult” is the kind of phrase politicians reach for when the truth is too jagged for a podium: peace after atrocity is not a switch you flip, it’s a grind you manage. Zapatero’s line is less about describing a timeline than disciplining expectations. It preemptively blocks the two most convenient myths in post-conflict politics: that a signature equals reconciliation, and that disappointment equals failure.

The intent is pragmatic and defensive at once. Pragmatic, because it signals seriousness to victims, mediators, and skeptical publics: you can’t reverse “years of horror and terror” with a press conference. Defensive, because it provides political cover for inevitable compromises. If the process is framed as inherently arduous, then messy outcomes - amnesties, reduced sentences, negotiations with people the public would rather never hear from again - become features of reality rather than betrayals of principle.

The subtext is about ownership of pain. By naming “horror and terror,” Zapatero acknowledges the moral asymmetry that often sits beneath peace talks: one side’s “combatants” are another side’s murderers. Yet he avoids specifics, a deliberate vagueness that keeps the door open to dialogue while resisting the trap of adjudicating every grievance in public. That ambiguity is a tool: it steadies the center and denies extremists the simple narrative they crave.

Context matters here: Zapatero’s Spain was defined by the long shadow of ETA violence and the contentious politics of negotiating an end to it. The sentence reads like a reminder that peace is not an event; it’s an argument a society has to keep winning, day after day, against its own memory and rage.