Tens of thousands of people marched through the Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian at the weekend in a mass show of public outrage at the killing of a local councillor, shot dead by an ETA gunman on Thursday.
In what was one of the biggest anti-ETA marches since millions of Spaniards took to the streets in countrywide protests last July, local police estimated 50,000 people heeded calls to come out and condemn the armed group's continuing violence.
It was an impressive show of solidarity. The march was headed by Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Francisco Alvarez Cascos, who joined the leaders of the Basque region's main political parties. Walking behind a banner which spelt out in the Basque language "Peace now and for always", the political leaders were sombrely applauded as they moved slowly through the crowded streets of the town.
The Basque region's leader, Mr Jose Antonio Ardanza, described the public's response as "fantastic".
The Spanish Interior Minister, Mr Jaime Mayor Oreja, who was accompanied by almost half the Spanish cabinet, praised the huge show of public unity. "This is the response of a hopeful nation, and only in this way will violence dissolve," he said.
But despite the politicians' optimistic words, members of the crowd were less certain. "We've been here before and will no doubt be here again," said one.
Only hours before the march the same politicians had attended the funeral of Mr Jose Maria Caso (64), the councillor for the ruling Popular Party in the Basque town of Renteria, whose murder sparked off this fresh wave of public protest. Mr Caso was shot dead by an ETA gunman on Thursday while drinking with friends in a local bar in his home town of Irun, near the Spanish border with France.
In what appears to be a worrying development for the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, whose party Mr Caso represented, the retired steel worker was the third Popular Party member to be targeted by ETA in the last six months.
In July, ETA shot Mr Miguel Angel Blanco, a young councillor in the Basque town of Ermua, whose kidnapping and subsequent killing sparked off nationwide protest, the size of which were unprecedented in Spain.
Only 10 days ago, another Popular Party councillor in San Sebastian, Ms Elena Azpiroz, survived a suspected ETA attack after her bodyguard was shot and wounded when he approached two people waiting outside her house.
The weekend's mass demonstration in protest at Mr Caso's killing comes just a week after the entire leadership of ETA's legal political wing, Herri Batasuna, began seven-year prison sentences after being found guilty by Madrid's Supreme Court of collaborating with the armed group.
One of the jailed party leaders, Floren Aoiz, had warned at the time that the conviction of the leadership would have "serious consequences for the Basque conflict".
A counter-demonstration in Bilbao planned by supporters of Herri Batasuna to protest at the sentencing of the party leadership and due to coincide with the peace protest in San Sebastian was eventually called off by the organisers, after the Basque Interior Ministry had said it would not give permission for it to go ahead.