News, September 2007

ETA announces end to ceasefire

5th June. ETA has announced that from midnight tonight its 'unilateral ceasefire' has come to an end. Sadly, it is hardly an unexpected announcement. Although at first there had been high hopes that 'this would be it', since last autumn it was clear that ETA had no plans to cease its activity, robbing arms, extorting 'revolutionary tax' from businesmen and then in December destroying a car park at Madrid's new airport terminal. Even allowing a party deemed close to its cause in the recent local elections was insufficient to appease the most extreme of the terrorists.

For 8 months Spain hoped against hope that the terrorism of ETA would finally have ended. On 2nd March, 2006, ETA announced a 'permanent ceasefire' in the hope that a 'solution' to the Basque problem could be found. Then, on 30th December a mega car bomb exploded in the central car park of Madrid's new Airport terminal. Two immigrants were killed. During the months of 'peace process and in the aftermath of the bombing, politicians bickered over how to deal with the complex situation.

The early months of 2007 were spent hoping that the bombing was a one-off, with the government wishing to appease more democracy-friendly elements by allowing a level of participation in the May 27th local elections. But the parties were not united, the right wing Partido Popular declaring all along thet the only way to deal with ETA is to gain total 'victory'. In a sense both the politicains and those close to ETA have been frustrated at the lack of unity among those they were supposed to be engaging in dialogue. Now at least there may be a new clarity, but it is clear that the influence of the peace process in Northern Ireland has now warn off and it will take time until peace eventually comes to the Basque Country.

The Basque extremists (ETA and its political wing Batasuna) want the establishment of a new Basque homeland, including Navarre and part of France.

Economist comment.