Reports on the Meeting

Today was the day when the Lehendakari of the BAC Juan José Ibarretxe and the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met again to discuss the ongoing negotiations in regards of the political relationship between Gazteiz and Madrid.

I want to stress that these series of meetings are being conducted exactly the way the international community has demanded from the Basques since 1945. Maybe it is time the powers to be are a bit more consistent with what they demand.

Anyway, here are a couple of recounts of what happened, first by Reuters, a news agency not too friendly to the Basques:

Spain's PM Urges Basque Leader Not To Go It Alone.

"The prime minister reminded the Basque premier that ... any reform of the statute of autonomy must have broad support from parties with parliamentary representation," said a statement from Zapatero's office after the talks.

Now, Zapatero went to into this meeting knowing that Ibarretxe has the upper hand on his bid towards a new term as a Lehendakari, enhanced by the meeting a couple of days ago with the leaders of the proscribed political party Batasuna:

In a tacit recognition that the tiny PCTV's success reflected support for Batasuna, Ibarretxe held talks on Tuesday with the heads of the outlawed party as part of consultations aimed at forming a new Basque regional government. The meeting dismayed the ruling Socialists and drew howls of outrage from the right-of-centre opposition Popular Party (PP), whose spokesman called it "shameful, indecent and intolerable". The PP wants Zapatero to outlaw the PCTV. They blame him personally for what they call the return of ETA to the Basque parliament.

On the other hand, Expatica, reported things their own style:

Zapatero In Crunch Talk Over Basque Future.

Against their usual way of reporting news about the Basque Country, Expatica actually published the words of the Lehendakari in which he insists a peace process must be followed:

Ibarretxe said prior to the talks — the second between the pair in recent months — that they were designed to set in train "a peace process and political normalisation" for the wealthy northern region whose autonomy the regional leader seeks to upgrade.

Then they are back to their old ways:

Batasuna, banned two years ago by the Spanish supreme court, called on voters to support a communist party grouping (PCVT-EHAK), which won nine seats.

Batasuna was banned because of links to armed Basque separatist group ETA, and the group features on an EU list of terrorist organisations.

If Batasuna was either a Chechen, Albanian Kosovar or Taiwanese party, the media would be questioning how come that after two years, Madrid has been unable to prove that Batasuna is the political wing of ETA. But since it is a Basque party, they just go ahead and repeat what the Spaniards say. In other words, to hell with the assumption of inocence and with the old strategy by some governments to smear the opposition with outlandish accusations.

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