SPAIN’S NEW presidency of the EU has suffered the indignity of an attack by computer hackers after an image of Mr Bean, the comedy buffoon, was briefly superimposed on its website.
An image of Mr Bean bearing a goofy smile, uttering the words “hi there”, appeared on the presidency’s home page on Monday in place of that of Prime Minister José Luís Zapatero.
The cyber-attack was a clear jibe at the socialist premier, who is held by many Spaniards to bear an uncanny resemblance to the bumbling character played by actor Rowan Atkinson.
Visitors to the site on Monday evening were temporarily unable to access any information while officials worked remove Mr Bean’s image from the website.
Although it was hardly a setback on a grand scale, the attack caused some embarrassment to Mr Zapatero’s administration at the outset of a presidency billed as opportunity to boost Spain’s standing in Europe and the wider world.
Spain, which assumed the union’s rotating presidency on New Year’s Day, is trying to use the six-month office as a platform to portray a positive image as it grapples with a deep recession and rising unemployment.
While other EU leaders have used their presidencies to project themselves on the European and world stage, Mr Zapatero has promised to take a back-seat role following the appointment of former Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy as the first president of the European Council.
The Spanish government emphasised that the www.eu2010.es site, a core forum for the dissemination of information about its presidency, was not itself attacked.
