Basque Blogspot

by hmmmmm - (iosaf) Thu Mar 30, 2006 19:47

I'm not sure whether the "jo ta ke" is really needed now or the right tone to pursue....

Anyway, I'll use this article to update bits and bobs on Basque news and the lead-up to a process as seen from Barcelona till we get proper news worthy of its own article. Zapatero has met Rajoy, to brief him on the ceasefire, they now talk of a "thaw", Rajoy has promised "loyal opposition" and "loyalty to the government". Really quite something, for the PP leader, optimists in the circles of the article above would point to AP/RN's editorial comment on the ETA ceasefire and the potential for the PP to make cheap political gains by throwing spanners in the works. But as the King went on the hugging spree this week to France after speaking at the weekend to journalists and the press corp whilst giving them prizes and gongs on the need for "caution and hope", journalists got hugs, Chirac got hugs, DeVillepin who is going to get the sack and didn't get a hug, the exiles of the spanish republic got hugs and praise, and then at home, Rajoy stopped talking about the Basque and went back to "the catalan estatut marks the splitting up of Spain". Just what we are all used to.

Otegi, the leader of the HB and regarded as all as the spokesperson for ETA has of course been facing court in these lastweeks, just before the ceasefire he suffered bronchitis and then got escorted under supreme tribunal order to hospital in a cavalcade of cars, half the cars were Spanish security forces, the other half belonging to HB/ETA. He was personally accompanied in that dramatic caravan by Joseba Permach ( C/F http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74663#comment141286 ) who has appealed for a process of discreet normalisation . And for the most part things are going along discreetly. under the constitution of the Spanish state, Zapatero will have to get the approval of congress to officially sit down and talk with ETA, but indications are actually that "the juicy bit" behind the ceasefire was the hope on behalf of HB/ETA to see the illegalisation lifted for the next elections, and thus be allowed to stand as a new formation, and thus engage in the democratic process. Ortegi is better now, no more coughing, in his place Josep Carod Rovira (The leader of ERC the catalan independence repùblicans had to get hospitalised within 48 hours of the ceasefire with angina pains. obviously the emotions were too much for him). Thanks to a very wide range of "cluck clucking" across the basque constitutional political spectrum (who from Lehandakari down see no advantage in locking him up) in court yesterday saw the proposed prison sentance adjusted to a fine/surity of 250,000€. this is bit of an up on the last suggested "ransom/bail" of 100,000€ . Which of course he managed to get _in clean used notes_ delivered in cash in late 2005. Obviously HB/ETA have a big kitty and lots of it as clean...

As he arrived to court he faced a phalanx of falangists and ultra right people who shouted insults to which he gave the usual fist in the air revolutionary sign thing. Now the reporting of that incident was interesting. Half of the Spanish national press used the photo from behind the ultra rights, and half used a photo from behind the HB/ETA team. No-one used a photo of the same ultra right people insluting and throwing eggs at the judge of the supreme tribunal. Thats telling...

and that sort of sums up the lie of the land for the moment. actually it sums it up exactly. the 2 opposite extremes, = its not a flat land

Mendiz mendi. Mendirik mendi
Bake Euskal Herria!

by hmmmmmmmmm Thu Mar 30, 2006 21:18

at link you can see photos of the Ortegi / Falange incident referred to in above comment.
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/248316
and then to get the "lie of the land" have a look at these taken within 2 hours of posting this comment.
Same falangist organisation, same fascist salutes, same flag, but in Barcelona....
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/248515
hmmmmmmmmmm. & when the PP are concilatory, we see the real ugliness.... "very photogenic"

by hmmmmmmmmmmm Fri Mar 31, 2006 13:51

here you will see the incident photographed from all angles, and the inclusion of a clever cartoon playing on the "bull fighting" this will help you understand the symbolism used by the ultra-right and falangists who like the spanish flag with a black bull on it, as their favourite flag (The Franco era eagle) is currently illegal. it would have made more sense to put this link in the comment immediately above. Sorry to the Irish basque readership for the sloppiness.
http://euskalherria.indymedia.org/eu/2006/03/27010.shtml

by mac diarmada Sun Apr 02, 2006 15:08

at least 50,000 people took to the streets yesterday of Bilbao in the Basque Country without incident, or any abnormal policing.

Marching behind a banner "time for solutions" the demonstraters were heard to ask for the end of dispersal prisoners, some calling for amnesty, others for independence. All the flags associated with the basque national liberation movement were seen, also those of Catalonia and Ireland.

Irish presence in the march included Bairbre de Brun of Sinn Fein and member of European Parliament and the Belfast based roman catholic cleric Alex Reid a noted and respected peace activist and member of the "redemptorist order".

In addition delegations from Catalonia, Galicia and other European states were noted.

Bairbre de Brun has joined with fellow members of the ["Nordic Green Alliance" (left block in the European parliament) german MEP Helmuth Markov, swedish MEPJonas Sjöstedt; dutch MEP Eric Meijer and MEPs of IU (The spanish republican post marxist party) and members of the "Free European alliance" block including MEPs of ERC including the latvian MEP Tatiana Zdanoka; the french MEP Gérard Onesta; and the (Welsh / British) MEPs Alyn Smith, Ian Hudghton and Gillian Evans and the belgian MEP Bart Staes]
to create a Basque support group at EU level which counts on the support of no less than 55 basque entities, including prisoner support groups and the main trade unions. The new EU entity is pressing for a multi-lateral process.

Collections were made on behalf of the fund to pay the tribunal a bail request for the leader of the illegalised HB party, A. Ortegi, who must find 250,000€ in cleaner money than Mr Haughey's generation of FF rogues ever thought existed.

A reminder of the bit I have consistenly gone on about for as long as any can remember :-

Talk-Talk :: Normalisation :: Hear-Listen :: Democracy :: Hope :: Serenity :: Discretion :: Humour :: Caution :: Reconciliation ::
Bake = Paz = Paix = Siochain = Pau = Shalom = Saleem = Peace

Everyone has a role to play in the local, national and, international and trans-national development of republicanism and the creation of .:. the republic. No matter how old or young. No matter to which if any political party or tradition they belong.

in other issues of the local popular culture and conversation in the lands which straddle the Pyrennes, yesterday April Fool's day (a concept not present in continental europe to the extend of the islands) saw several sporting fixtures celebrated of certain irony. you can read about them and the results here-
http://iosaf.allotherplaces.org/?p=123 {thats one of my blog spaces provided by regular indymedia contributor Redjade at his "gach ait eile" site which is gaeilge for "all other places" Broaden your horizons

by continuing... - (iosaf) thank you Paula O Neill for this page=proving useful Fri Apr 07, 2006 17:12

Arnaldo Ortegi Mondragon, the leader of HB/ETA will leave prison in a few minutes as the bail set at 250,000eu has been supplied. Also about to leave prison are Juan José Petrikorena and Juan María Olano also of the illegalised HB/ETA grouping, bails of 200,000eu each were supplied.

Thats a total value of 650,000eu. or approx 787,700us$ or approx 452,435 pounds sterling
or if you want to be dramatic 35,111,501 Indian ruppees or about 22 million russian rubles.
Its a lot of cash to raise in one week.

They have spent only a short time in prison after the Spanish state prosecutor held them acountable for damages to property during an illegal strike on the 9th of March. They seem quite happy with themselves being able to raise that amount of cash in clean used notes. & well wouldn't you be?
I'd be happy to count up to 30 shiney silvery coins.

Meanwhile an old ETA man, Alejandro Uzquiano Segurola who was 41 years old, was found in advanced decomposition in a van yesterday in Hernani (Guipúzcoa). He has served a 14 year sentance & had been free since the 8th of June 2000. An autopsy is to be carried out. The dead man had been missing since early February 2006.

Oh and Zapatero has reshuffled his cabinet for the first time since his regime began.

The male / female balance remains (The Spanish cabinet is the only EU member to have a 50%/50% gender balance) Only one person is going José Bono, the minister of Defence who made history by house arresting members of the defence forces for "sabre rattling" on Catalan and Basque autonomy issues had asked to be allowed resign "for personal reasons". He has also confirmed that he doesn't want to run for Mayor of Madrid. José Bono oversaw a reorganisation of the Spanish Armed Forces, which included re-equipment and deployments to Afghanistan as part of the ISAF contingent, and HAITI. He also oversaw the withdrawl of troops from Iraq and had the difficult task of liason with the USA and NATO in the last 2 years. He also earned a reputation as a maverick for saying rude things to the Catalans which some thought was currying favour with the PP, who in their initial reactions have expressed disappointment at his departure, sort of liking him.
José Bono was also, curiously enough, the only known regularly practising kathurlick in the PSOE cabinet.
May he enjoy his Easter+

by iosaf Mon Apr 24, 2006 16:59

Easter Sunday is celebrated in the Basque region as "Aberri Eguna" or "national day". The holiday began in 1932 as an annual march by the PNV (Basque nationalist party) which saw speeches made and culminated with a visit to the house of Sabino Arana the founder of the PNV. During the dictatorship, the day came to be adopted by all political parties in the Basque, and this year's 2006 was the first without any sort of "hassle" in the background, all the mainstream constitutional Basque political parties talking about how the Basques feel and may express their nationhood more than ever before, to some this would be a sign of an emergent "pan-nationalist front", and indeed as the leader of HB met with the Lehandakari and leader of the PNV (Taoiseach) in the same period calling for a quick movement to an inclusive table of negotiations "optimism" amongst Basque nationalists of all types seemed high.
Despite the emergence of letters to business men in Navarra apparantly from ETA continuing the practise of "extorsion", the Lehandakari suggested that some teething problems would still be had...

Then this last weekend, several seperate acts of "Street violence" or "kale borraka" occured, by which is meant arson attacks on infrastructure (railway) and political offices.
And they occured in Navarre, which under the current Spanish constitution is a seperate "autonomous region" unlike the Basque it has no powers to raise taxes, and historically is a little bit different, though ETA and HB claim it as part of their "Euskal Herria". Since the dictatorship, Navarra has lost in its southern "spanish parts" much use of the Basque language, though the flag is still flown at the annual bull running festival at Pamplona. But for all intensive purposes asking Navarrans if they are "Basque" or not, is rather like asking people from Antrim where they stand on Home Rule question.

The president of the Navarran autonomous region, Miguel Sanz Sesma http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Sanz_Sesma (who leads the "navarran people's party "UPN") which used to rule in coalition with the leftist parties of the Spanish state, but has since the last 2 elections relied on support from the PP) has today called on Zapatero to interrupt the peace process, considering the attacks to be "terrorist activity", and indeed 4 people were injured in the arson attacks one of which was on a store owned by a UPN party member.... For the moment Zapatero has not responded.
Oh well, I spoke too soon! At exact time of writing this comment, the secretary of the PSOE, galician born Jose Blanco has just responded to the Navarran autonomous president, that the peace process hasn't started yet. which is very jesuitical for an agnostic and no doubt about it. He's also asked for more loyalty to the institutions of state .
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_38...shtml
¿its all very ironic isn't it?

in case your interested

Zapatero is on a "state tour" marking his 2 years in office, which is why he just got on "Newsweek" magazine's front cover, with the title "making socialism work". He kicked it all off with a yankee style stadium appearance singing his own praises on "diversity issues" - the reform of the Catalan estatut, and the hoped for reforms of all the 17 regional relationships, the gay marriage law stuff like that, but had not the rash optimism to include the Iraq war or the Basque peace process. It seemed a bit silly to be honest. Yesterday 23April was "St Jordi's day" when the Catalans celebrate their patron saint by giving each other roses and books, lining their streets with book stalls, which concentrate notably on their own history and difference. ITs a day when all the Catalan TV stations allow themselves the opportunity to remind all that the Spanish hate them . & to be frank - the spanish do hate them. { I know I went had visited "spain" and asked them over a week ago, and touched on my shock at how very deep that hatred is, here - http://indymedia.ie/article/75454 } & to be even more frank, sincere & call a spade a spade ought be our motto , if the Spanish hate the Catalans, oh well they doth also hate the Basques...

other links on the Basque subject for Irish readers which have appeared recently on the indymedia ireland newswire (by other people) :-

Ógra Shinn Féin highlight human rights abuses in Basque Country
http://indymedia.ie/article/75601
An opportunity to hear Basque folk music until April 29th. (though I think their food is better)
http://indymedia.ie/article/75594

by iosaf Tue Apr 25, 2006 20:46

at a press conference yesterday evening for the first time in their history HB sympathised with victims of violence associated with their armed force tradition independence movement. Without actually "condemning" the recent arson attacks, they did signal that this is not "helpful to their legalisation" [which is what they want along with prisoner release] and so we wouldn't be surprised to learn that they closed their statements with "we hope there will be no more prisoners".

The Government then said they thought HB were on "the right track". Meanwhile there were silent concentrations in front of the scenes of the arson attacks by people who just wanted to say "No!" to that sort of thing, and also those who wanted to sympathise with the neighbours who lived upstairs the business premises attacked who now have "no homes".

by iosaf Wed Apr 26, 2006 14:49

Following the historic statement by HB's spokespeople, Joseba Permach (C/F http://indymedia.ie/article/74663#comment141286 )and Rafa Diez Usabiaga (described by RC Belfast cleric and pacifist Alex Reid last week as "the basque Gerry Adams") the leader of the pro-independence basque trade union LAB, in which they expressed their opinion that the fire bomb attacks were "grave very grave" and called on members of ETA to desist from any violence and expressed sympathy with the victims... and reminded their own side and others that after 40 years of violence and only one month since the permenant ceasefire http://indymedia.ie/article/75012 , the changes on all sides need to start now -

The Spanish Government cleared ETA of any involvement, but the Navarran regional government's president (mentioned in two comments above) insisted to media that his own regional goverment had information "linking ETA" to the groups responsible. Yet again, like the news and media spin touched on the first 3 comments above, there were 2 reactions. (as usual "Mendiz mendi Mendirik mendi" )

For what its worth Microsoft news led with the Navarran regional government's claim of ETA involvement, as did the rightwing Spanish press who had just finished reporting a rally of the "neo-falange" in Madrid which a few thousand people attended to express their belief that there is only one "nation" (España) and gave them an opportunity to sing their songs, give the old fascist salute, and air the moustaches and sunglasses. The "otherside" focussing on the Spanish PSOE Government's statements, and the final progress of the Catalan estatut through the Senate, the quick acceptance of the Valencian regional "estatut" reform ( in which the Valencians preambled their "historic right to be considered a nation" ), and the new "big question" as Andalucia prepares its own "estatuto" reform, and has just started talking about "Andalucia is a nation".

Today a spokesman on behalf of the Spanish government has said that "the future of Navarra will not play a part in any peace process". So we will have to wait to see if anyone in Navarra wants their eventual "estatut" to declare Navarra as a "nation" and considering its "ancient right to raise taxes" (which it shares with the ancient "Basque countdoms") that will probably be another great year of media opinion forming bollox. & make no mistake it is all the fault of the Catalans

the golden rules :-

Normalisation :: Democracy :: Discretion :: Serenity :: Realism

by - Thu May 18, 2006 02:13

Arnaldo Otegi has been facing charges of insulting the Crown / King ( a crime in the spanish state ) as well as "encouraging terrorism" for the last months.
Keen basque observers will remember he managed to get bail in squeeky clean cash (the sort Haughey never dreamt of) at the sum of 250,000eu (see above comments with title "bits and bobs")
Otegi is now obliged by the judiciary to refrain from insulting the King / Crown for another 3 years, or else they'll send him to prison for a year. He really appears very good at staying out of Jail. & I mean "very good". This sort of talent goes beyond having a monopoly "get of jail free card". Its like really "p-o-l-i-t-i-c-a-l".
Now a word to our younger readers!
If your Ma or Da are trying to convince you that you can be as "political" and difficult to jail as Arnaldo Ortegi......... you might like to get out more.
Join a youth club and learn snooker, it is an easy game which is really all about geometry. Or....
Try drugs! As long as you don't go washing cocaine base into crack rocks ( & caught) you won't get a longer sentance than 7 years.
Actually just forget the "nationalist" / "republican" / "socialist" / "self-determination" thing completely - There's nothing in it but hassle, and your Ma & Da are living in different times. (((They didn't have MTV)))
Join with your pals and do a "pop band" instead. If you sell billions of CD's you'll get a UN ambassadorship and be on the front of the Irish Times every other week = cool & famous.
Or just grow up!!!!!!!! Laddy (&/or) Ladette! (sweet chidren of ours) -
forget the nation bollox!
Join your local equivalent of Fianna Fail and if you can get the trite soundbytes together and have the right accent - they just might make you the Lehandakari and you can pose for photos next to Hugo Chavez.
But one thing youngsters you must never forget is this -
"don't give an inch to hunger strikers"

http://www.berria.info/edizioa_ikusi.php?id=14623
(that's a basque link. to test your true interest in the subject material)

by an t-uasal foghlaí - ;-) Fri Jun 02, 2006 05:10

Spain ( & the Spanish state ) like most large infuential democracies is proud of its seperation of Judiciary, Legislature and Executive. As we all know, ETA declared a complete ceasefire earlier this year, and in the last week the head of the Executive, Mr Zapatero informed the Legislature (Spanish state Congress) that he was about to engage in negotiations with ETA (& its political representatives) & seek approval for that, "the legitimate democratic way". Approval which of course he got, he has a clear majority and no backbench grumblers, and also counted on the Basque nationalist party and the "looney left" amongst others, in fact the only ones that opposed were the PP...

The Spanish state has the highest proportion of lawyers to laypersons in the EU. That little fact ought not be that surprising, its more a symptom of the full social spectrum resulting from a transition from authoritarian fascist dictatorship to democracy. & thus no-one ought be surprised that the Spanish Judiciary are fiercely independent, and no-one above a certain level of social interaction is short of "legal advice". In an announcement published at midnight peninsular time, Joseba Permach has been subjected to a peculiar order - "he's not to go organising any more public meetings where terrorism may be promoted and he has to sign in at a cop shop every day". Joseba has been mentioned above, & you can gawk at his photo here http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74663#comment141286. However, Joseba has not been nominated by HB/ETA to form part of the negotiation team with the ZP government, nor indeed has the man described by the Belfast RC cleric (and noted pacifist Fr. Alex Reid) as the Basque "Gerry Adams".
Joseba isn't really "the troublesome gig" organiser, he just does the explantory press conferences about them, and I must admit not always gurgling the finest cliches like our own Lehandakari Bartholomew Ahern ( c/f http://indymedia.ie/article/73787 )

I apend this information, to the updates [ & perhaps insights ] in the comments above, simply because at this very moment in time [ almost 5 hours since the judgement was published ] I'm not really sure where its supposed to go... (ahem giggle I don't suppose Joseba is going to tour Eire soon either)

The judgement was passed & published by Fernando Grande Marlasko, who interestingly enough will soon enough not be the Spanish state equivalent of the "Irish Attorney General" as, the much more famous Balthazor Garzon is about to return from his extended sabatical in the USA. Garzon is significant for many reasons - it was he who effectively criminalised HB and their fellow travellers, he also won global respect for his succesful action against Augusto Pinochet, leading to that former dictator's arrest during a routine visit to the UK a few years back. Garzon at his own request has spent almost a year in the USA lecturing their Judiciary on "proper counter terrorist cases". Apparantly he was unhappy that Spain had logged the highest amount of proper legal cases against Al Qaeda, and the lowest number of "shoot to kills" [for a state which suffered an "Al Qaeda" attack] I don't know what Garzon will make of this "last minute" judgement. It may be significant, & then again it may not be...
Maybe elements of the Spanish Judiciary are (God and Constitution forbid) reacting to political expediency and simply wish to bring the name of Joseba (my namesake though in euskara version) to all our attention.............. hmmmmmmmmmmmm..................... He certainly has put in the leg work............look at the photo http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74663#comment141286 & so far no-one has needed to collect bail of either 250,000Eu or 300,000Eu in cleaner notes than the FF old fellows ever dreamt possible.

¿maybe its all a cunning trap?

by anon Fri Jun 02, 2006 05:30

So do you reckon Joseba Permach will be having dinner and wine with Kissenger in 5 years time?

by iosaf Wed Jun 07, 2006 21:15

6/6/06 saw the most dramatic clash in the Spanish congress in history. As members of the association of victims of ETA hurled abuse from the visitors' gallery (until they were removed) the opposition (PP) under its leader Mariano Rajoy broke all co-operation with the executive.

Meanwhile the injunction mentioned 2 comments above came into force, as police stopped a press conference of the "illegalised" Batasuna.

Just as Gerry Adams hugged Otegi at Bilbao airport & called for Batasuna to be "legalised as part of the natural order of things". (sic)

& as if this wasn't enough to top the cake of Spanish state "executive / legislature / judiciary" games, which I really tell you are the best in the world, the Crown in the form of the Bourbons went to Oslo to meet the Norwegian Crown, inspect a boat built in Spain sold to the Norwegian navy, and thank the Norwegian socialist government for "establishing contact between Batasuna, ETA & the Spanish government".

Impressed?
Befuddled?

Try this next item from yesterday's news :-
As we all know the Catalan's attempted a "estatut" reform last September, and since then got bogged down in legal challanges, spanish nationalist challanges, ended up calling a referendum on a document which was slightly altered by the PSOE in Madrid working with the Catalan opposition CiU.... President of Catalan government called for a referendum on the 18th of June (7th anniversary of RTS! London day) resulting in a public farce over the call to a "yes/no" vote... which broke the tripartite & led to the Catalan government dissolving...... & now as of 6/6/06 the Spanish Supreme Court has ruled that the Catalan government may not constitutionally call on citizens to vote in the referendum. http://iosaf.allotherplaces.org/?p=143

I'm amazed. This has long beyond the simple task of writing a book to explain it all to an English or Irish readership like Messrs Woodworth or O Broin have tried to do before. I'm now facing (should I seek to explain it all) something as monstruous in its scope as Gibbon's "fall of the Roman Empire".
The road to a federal Spanish state appears more now than at any stage before as difficult an achievement as the road to self determination for either Basques or Catalans or... a repubic of Britain.
Still complex problems always called for brilliant minds to offer simple solutions.

= play on!

Gerry & Arnaldo hug for world 666 Devil day at Bilbao airport. "some say the divil is dead & buried in Killarney, more say....."

by iosaf Sat Jun 10, 2006 22:36

* After visiting the Basque country, Gerry Adams went to Catalonia where he was given an award for his role in the peace process (Irish / British one) by the group CIEMENS (they're yet another of the multitude of Catalan groups who swap papers on ethnicity and culture) http://www.ciemen.org/ I believe I'm affiliated in some way Anyway Gerry told the Catalans that they must struggle for their self-determination. ( I reckon they knew anyway ).

Mariano Rajoy the leader of the PP came to Barcelona to tell the Catalans to vote No! (for Catalonia) ( of course ) in their referendum of June 18th. He had to leave pretty sharpish as the locals in the market of "staunchly working class" Hospitalet turned on him with thrown rotten veggies and calls of "fascist!" "disgusting manky filthy fecker!" (& things like that) The PP have since accused socialists of being behind it. Many might wonder what Rajoy was doing attempting a walk-about in Collbanc market on Saturday............hmmmmmm.................sure go on................ I'll tell ye.
The leader of the PP in the Barcelona council lives in a posh tower block just down the road with views of the polo park, which is why on barcelona indymedia I always call him "polo boy". He's a prize wanker, has a CNI bodyguard [with shoot to kill license] { once pushed me out of a shared lift } and hates us (the social assemblies, anarkistiiis, okupas &c..,) Rajoy would have started his day from there. But that's pushing the "personal details info" - so - I won't tell you anymore I could be endangering Alberto polo boy......( after all my words could be read by terrorists )
http://www.vilaweb.cat/www/noticia?p_idcmp=1935155
http://www.vilaweb.cat/www/ep/noticia?noticia=1935934

Meanwhile activists (!?) of "paisos catalanes" the people who really seem to think they can get an independent state together from Andorra in the west to Perpinan in the north (France) to Alicante in the south (Spain) and call it "Catalan states" hung a banner on the world famous sagrada familia church. Thats not really impressive at all - its really easy to access. But anyway here's the pics .-
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/261632 They of course are asking for a "No!" vote as well (for catalonia).

After the wonderful display of anarchistic sentiment by the Supreme Court (see above comment) which found it is unconstitutional to tell people to vote, the Catalan government have changed all their posters again for the J18 day. They now have no words, just a picture of a ballot box and the useful reminder that there is a referendum. Opinion polls suggest there will be a participation of 52%.

& up north in Basque land - nothing really happening. Well, today saw thousands of trade unionists march for "self-determination" & of course many of them were the same people who can't have press conferences, but appear to have indirect contacst through Oslo with Madrid ( who of course they don't want to talk to at all, at all)
Its been a while since the euphoria of "normalisation - democracy - discretion - serenity - caution" got wind going from all the characters. Rajoy told the press after being kicked out of the BCN market today that if ZP really wants to talk to him again, and they have a loyal opposition - "he's up for it", & in Madrid a very large turn-out was seen today for an "anti-ETA" march which possibly significantly saw involvement from the victims of March 11, who took the opportunity to ask for a further inquiry into the events of 2004, and also to dismiss the "serenity" clause of the 5 golden rules.
( "normalisation - democracy - discretion - serenity - caution" ) Oddly I remember having a go at a commentator for confusing those issues just after ETA made their ceasefire C/f http://indymedia.ie/article/75012.
"Serenity" doesn't really work in the Basque, Catalonia or Spain, perhaps the Iberians never got enough Phil Coulter.... The only person who uses the word anyway is the King Señor Bourbon, I remember we took it as the "go-ahead" for picketing the PP offices the weekend of M11......... Anyway....

how long did it take the Irish peace process to deliver?