SPAIN: More than 150,000 people packed the streets of San Sebastian at the weekend to protest at moves by the Basque government to impose greater self-government and to call for an end to intimidation against those who do not share the nationalist views.
The region is becoming increasingly polarised and embittered. One one side are the hardline Basque nationalists who demand a greater degree of self-government and, in some cases, eventual independence; on the other the many Basques who oppose such a drastic move and prefer to remain within the Spanish state. The latter complain they are being penalised in their work and daily lives for not following the nationalist line.
It is estimated that 200,000 Basques or 10 per cent of the population have been forced out of the region over the past decade, either because of ETA violence or because they are against increased nationalism. Many of them returned to their home region on Saturday to join the demonstration.
At the head of the march was a banner reading "Constitution and Autonomy Statute Yes, Obligatory Nationalism, No". It was led by the widows of two men killed by ETA, by two university professors threatened by the terrorists and by politicians from all the political parties except the nationalist parties.
One of the protesters was a member of the Ertxainxa, the Basque autonomous police force, who preferred not to be named. "Because we are Ertxainxa doesn't mean we have to support this extreme form of nationalism," he said. "We just want to work as professional policemen and not be penalised for our opinions."
Others complain at the shrinking liberty for the people who live and work in the region and say they are unable to go about their daily lives normally.
"More people are under threat today than when we held a similar demonstration two years ago," said Basque journalist Gorka Landaburu, who was badly maimed by an ETA bomb last year. Walking nearby was the Basque intellectual Mikel Azurmendi, who said: "I will not rest until I can move freely without a bodyguard."
The high-profile examining judge Baltasar Garzon, who last month took steps to proscribe ETA's political front, Batasuna, accused the party at the weekend of low-grade "ethnic cleansing" similar to the Mafia or Nazis.
The demonstration was convened by Basque pacifist groups and organisations representing victims of terrorism. One of the organisers was the writer and philosopher Fernando Savater. Last week he told The Irish Times: "We are not against nationalism per se, but we are against compulsory nationalism and against those who say that anyone who is against nationalism is an enemy of the Basque people. We are Basques too."
The decision to hold the march followed the proposal by Mr Juan José Ibarretxe, president of the Basque government, who last month called for self-determination to grant Basques even greater self-government than they already enjoy. He proposed "a new status of free association with the Spanish state" which would give Basques the "right to decide their own future".
The final communiqué, read in Spanish, Basque and French, denounced the Ibarretxe proposal, the "ethnic cleansing" of those who did not share their views and called for equal rights for all who live in the region. "We don't want nationalism forced on us. We cannot live in peace while we are suffering under this blind nationalism."