The announcement that the militant Basque group Eta is to observe a permanent ceasefire is good news for that region, for Spain as a whole and for all Europeans. Assuming the pledge is delivered upon, this is a decisive turn to political engagement and away from a long campaign of terrorism in which 800 people have died since it began in the 1960s.
Eta says it accepts this democratic logic and the Spanish government insists it will not talk to the organisation directly about the political future, but only about how to stand down Eta and its activities.
This is potentially a major breakthrough in Spanish politics. It appears to justify the risk taken by prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero last year when he offered a political process in return for a lasting end to violence. He recognised the opportunity arising from popular disgust with terrorism after the Islamic fundamentalist attack in Madrid on March 11th, 2004, in the aftermath of which he was himself elected. The popular mood reflected a wider international disenchantment with such violence after the devastating 9/11 attacks in the United States.
And Mr Zapatero has accumulated political authority since then by showing an ability to deliver on his radical promises to change Spanish society. This has been the case especially in Catalonia, which he has been prepared to recognise as a nation, within the terms of the Spanish constitution.
This development has created the possibility that a similar political settlement could be reached in the Basque country, falling short of secession.
Mr Zapatero has in consequence become arguably the most interesting personality in European politics, and Spain its most intriguing country over the last two years. His approach has enraged the opposition Partido Popular, the Catholic Church, the armed forces and other established interests. Their rhetoric of betrayal, treachery and national disintegration directed against him recalls that used in the Franco period, and has been amplified through a series of mass protest rallies.
This underlines how risky his strategy has been should it fail, but equally the huge political benefits if Mr Zapatero succeeds in removing the threat of Eta violence from Spain on a permanent basis.
He said yesterday that "any peace process after so many years of horror and terror will be long and difficult". Irish people will readily recognise the need for caution and the likely pitfalls along the way. It will not be easy to separate negotiations on decommissioning arms and prisoner releases from an emerging substantive political agenda, particularly if the opposition maintains its hostile attitude.
But the political mood in Spain is with Mr Zapatero for the moment, and is sustained by a buoyant economy and the effective delivery of political change in other areas. This should give these efforts to resolve the intractable Basque conflict a fair wind.