Basque separatism remains critical issue

Spain has seen a wave of deadly bomb attacks by ETA in the past few months

By William Myers

MADRID, Spain -- "The most serious and grave problem Spain has is terrorism," King Juan Carlos said earlier this week in a television interview.

"But together, defending democracy, we will be able to solve it," he added.

By "terrorism," he meant the Basque separatist movement ETA, which has killed over 800 people during the past 30 years in its campaign to win the right to self-determination in a Basque homeland.

The king himself was literally in ETA's sights on several occasions during a holiday in Mallorca in 1995. But plans to kill him with a sniper's bullet were thwarted by police before the ETA had completed its getaway plans.

Precisely because he is a symbol of the national unity of Spain, King Juan Carlos is rejected by those who aspire to the recognition of a separate nationhood -- in Galicia, Catalonia and, especially, in the Basque country.

In fact, the Basque region was the only section of Spain that refused to ratify the constitution of 1978, which established a democratic system but also formalised the restoration of the monarchy, with the king as the head of state.

The Spanish royal family -- King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, the "Infantas" Elena and Cristina and Crown Prince Felipe -- has steered clear of the controversies which have plagued, for example, its British counterparts.

The royal family is very highly thought of in most parts of Spain. Nevertheless, visits to the Basque region are kept low-key in order to minimise the demonstrations they invariably trigger.

Only last week, Basque regional public television was sharply criticised for reportedly referring to Prince Felipe as a "vulture" during his visit to the Basque city of Bilbao. However, the television station denied the allegations.

And last September, in the Basque town of Hernani, eight grenades were found a short distance from the open-air museum that the king and queen officially opened just a few hours later.

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Spanish Government

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