Cuban President Fidel Castro was more critical, however. Speaking during a television interview on 13 March 2004 in Havana, Castro accused Spain's government of deceiving its citizens over the Madrid train bombings for electoral gain. He went on to assert that Prime Minister José María Aznar had known an Islamic group was behind the explosions on 11 March, but preferred to blame ETA ahead of the general elections just three days away. Germany also condemned Aznar, who had not been told the explosives used were not of the type used by ETA. Otto Schily accused Aznar of not acting responsibly by claiming that the perpetrators were ETA – therefore a national problem – rather than al-Qaeda, which ought to have heightened the threat to other countries.