We always knew there was something wrong with Prime Minister Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and today that missing link got just a little bit more primal. Turns out his idea of democratic revolution is equal rights for apes under the law. That’s right, Zapatero’s gone ape for ape rights, and given that he’s lost the confidence of his human supporters one can probably surmise that he wants to empower a newer and far more loyal core constituency that sees things as he does.

Here are the monkeyshines:

The Great Ape Project is founded upon the genetic similarity between great apes – chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas – and humans and is pursuing the aim of securing a U.N. Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes that would confer certain moral and legal rights on them, including “the right to life, the freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty and protection from torture.” “Regardless of who it hurts, we human beings are great apes,” said the president of the Great Ape Project in Spain

Oh gawd, I really hope they do this and succeed at the United Nations. It will be so in character.

Agencia EFE has the rest of the chimp noises here and for Franco the Barcepundit it’s enough to drive him bananas. Be sure to read the monkey business here.

UPDATE: Sharon Hughes has an item about the kind of cultural atmosphere in Europe from which these ape-rights ideas emerge here.