ETA 'ends attacks' on politicians.

[achilles]

The Basque militant group Eta has said it will no longer attack Spanish politicians, in a statement reported by the Basque newspaper, Gara. The group said it has closed its "front" against politicians because of changes in the political climate.

Madrid has offered to negotiate with Eta if it lays down its weapons.

The militants, who are blamed for some 800 deaths in their 40-year fight for an independent Basque nation, say they are ready to talk but not to disarm.

A statement issued by the group on Friday stressed that the right to self-determination would have to be central to any peace process.

Protests

Eta's latest statement, issued on Saturday, said it was waiting for the Spanish and French authorities to "respond positively to the will" it had displayed.

The militants' planned Basque homeland encompasses areas of northern Spain and south-western France.

Over the past two years, it has carried out several small attacks without causing any deaths.

Some 250,000 people marched in Madrid earlier in June to protest at Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's offer to negotiate with the militant separatists.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4107596.stm

[Ratamacue]

How nice of them.

[scoone]

:cantbeli:

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

What are the feelings amongst Gallego's and Catalans in Spain towards the ETA's and other Basque political groups determination for independence or a greater degree of self rule.

[Knutsen]

There's also a strong feeling of independence or separatism in some sectors of the population in Catalonia and Galicia.
In fact, in Catalonia one of the main parties is CiU (Convergencia i Unió), which is a conservative nationalistic party. There's also ERC (Esquerra Republicana Catalunya), which is far left and member of the catalonian government. The main difference is that in Catalonia they don't kill people to make their objectives, although there was a great controversy last year, when the leader of ERC secretly travelled to France to ask ETA not kill in Catalonia (which in my very personal opinion deserves the adjective of "hijo de puta").

Btw, if you are interested, today there are elections in Galicia with the following parties:

-PP with Manuel Fraga has been in power the last 5 legislatures (Fraga was the information minister with Franco).

-PSOE
-BNG (Bloque nacionalista galego, left wing).

Latest polls say there could be a defeat of PP with a PSOE-BNG coalition.

[scoone]

What are the feelings amongst Gallego's and Catalans in Spain towards the ETA's and other Basque political groups determination for independence or a greater degree of self rule.

In Galicia the vast majority of the people does not support the ETA goals. We don't think on independence as a solution although a lot of people are backing new proposals for an upgrade on the self rule issue among the different regions of Spain. Anyway, most of us think that violence is not an option.