POLITICS-SPAIN: ETA Attack Pushes Basque Coalition to the Brink

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Jun 6 2000 (IPS) - Basque nationalism is on the verge of splitting, said leaders from the political coalition’s moderate majority Monday, after the illegal organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA – Basque Freedom and Homeland) was blamed for the Sunday assassination of a town councillor from Spain’s governing Popular Party (PP).

Jesús María Pedrosa, a councillor of the Durango municipal government in the northern Basque province of Vizcaya, was killed with a single gunshot to the head as he returned home – unarmed and without bodyguards – from a basketball game.

The victim was a member of the nationalist ELA union and had received several threats from ETA and its supporters – but he had refused to leave the Basque Country or accept police protection.

In 1997, after one such threat, Pedrosa declared on Spain’s National Radio that he did not know if he would go to heaven or hell after he died. “I’ll try to get to heaven. What I know for sure is that I will be leaving from Durango,” reaffirming his will to continue living and working in his hometown.

Durango is co-governed by two moderate nationalist groups – the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and its offshoot Eusko Alkartasuna (EA), allied with Euskal Herritarrok (EH), an independent party supported by ETA.

The illegal organisation, which took up arms in 1968, declared a unilateral cease-fire in September 1998, but renewed its attacks in January of this year, adding to the over 800 victims ETA has claimed in its three-decade history.

The first sign of break-up among the Basque political groups occurred Sunday, when a meeting of the town’s councillors condemned the assassination of Pedrosa, supported by all parties – except the EH.

The president of the PNV executive committee in Vizcaya, Iñigo Urkulu, said Monday that his party would study its accords with the EH. The PNV, he added, “demands a commitment (to condemn violence), and today we have seen where that promise stands.”

Josu Jon Imaz, PNV member and spokesman for the Basque autonomous government concurred, saying “any agreement is impossible with those who do not have a clear and firm attitude in defence of human rights.”

If the PNV maintains its position, the EH will cease to co-govern in several Basque towns. In addition, the PNV and EA would be reduced to a minority in the autonomous parliament, which could lead to its dissolution, and a call for new elections.

But PNV president Xavier Arzallus maintained an ambiguous stance when he said “today I am not going to get involved in any other issues (besides giving condolences to the Pedrosa family), but after the mourning, in a few days, then I will speak.”

Arzallus’ statements led the Spanish government’s spokesman, Pío Cabanillas, to point out that declarations lamenting the assassination must be translated into action and that, in addition to reviewing the pacts with the EH, what the moderate Basque nationalists should do is annul the accords that continue holding the coalition together.

Euskal Herritarrok released a statement saying that the Basque Country receives more than its share of criticism for not condemning, but only “lamenting” the death of Pedrosa.

“Once again, the political conflict has emerged in its maximum crudeness” said the EH, maintaining that solutions lie in “articulating the necessary mechanisms to permit the expression of the Basque democratic will.”

The EH runs businesses, publishes newspapers and participates in elections, even running candidates who are known ETA members – two are now deputies in the autonomous parliament – and governs and co- governs, depending on the case, in towns in all parts of the Basque Country.

Meanwhile, throughout Spain, and within the Basque Country, assassinations and bombings attributed to ETA continue to spark demonstrations against the group, uniting protesters from unions, non-governmental organisations, political parties and public institutions.

The government of the autonomous Basque region, led by Juan José Ibarretxe, of the PNV, for the first time has thrown its support behind the demonstrations organised by the PP, ELA and the city of Durango. On previous occasions, when seven other PP town councillors were assassinated, the Basque government organised its own demonstrations.