BASQUE TERRORIST group Eta’s announcement of a “definitive end” to “armed activity” on Thursday produced a flood of contradictory responses in Spain yesterday.
Many commentators, especially senior members of the security forces and the politically powerful associations representing some of Eta’s 829 victims, expressed deep distrust of the group’s intentions.
They say there is no direct reference to disarmament or disbandment in Eta’s statement. They add that the group has promised permanent peace before, and then resumed armed actions.
They also say it is largely the success of police operations over the past 10 years, rather than any real change of heart about violence, that has brought about an apparent end to 43 years of shootings and bombings.
They argue that there should therefore be no clemency towards Eta’s prisoners, and absolutely no discussion of a change in political status for the Basque Country.
However, remarkable shifts in position in Spain’s two biggest parties indicate that well-informed leaders accept that Eta’s war is finally over this time around.
The most unexpected response came from the leader of Spain’s deeply conservative Partido Popular (PP), the party widely tipped to replace the incumbent Socialist Party (PSOE) in government after next month’s general elections.
The PP has been scathingly sceptical of the peace process. As recently as last Monday, it described a Basque peace declaration supported by international figures including Kofi Annan, Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair and Gerry Adams as “unacceptable to democrats”.
The first senior PP responses to the Eta statement were equally negative. But then the PP prime- ministerial candidate, Mariano Rajoy, sounded a different note, calling the statement “great news”.
He went on to say he was sure no political concessions had been made in exchange for Eta’s final cessation. This indicates a level of bipartisan trust on terrorism issues between the major opposition party and the government that has not been evident in recent years.
The first minister of the Basque autonomous government, Patxi López, who is also a senior PSOE figure, announced yesterday that he was starting talks about the new situation with all Basque parties.
He specifically included Bildu, the new pro-independence coalition close to the thinking of Eta, which won 25 per cent of the Basque vote in May’s local elections.
Bildu will certainly raise the key issue of relaxing the punitive regime under which Eta’s 549 prisoners in Spanish jails are held, a prospect Mr López has previously refused to entertain.
These moves suggest that this really is the end of Eta, for which outgoing Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who is not running for re-election and is severely damaged by Spain’s economic crisis, can claim at least some credit.