The Pan and the Kettle

Madrid continues its repressive measures against the Basques as it was shown with the onslaught of arrests that took place in different locations of Euskal Herria and Spain.

Yet, the members of the PSOE and the PP continue their bickering and their blame game.

Which begs the question. Is this part of a joint strategy to suffocate this opportunity to achieve peace?

Check this out and draw you own conclusion, the note appeared at EITb:

ETA's statement sets Spanish Govt and opposition at odds

ETA statement

06/22/2006

The Spanish government is very annoyed at the conservative PP president's reaction on the last statement of the Basque armed group ETA. The justice minister, Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, assured it is "uncharacteristic" of Mariano Rajoy to "nourish ETA's discourse and encourage the band." But the leader of PP kept on criticizing the Spanish government, to which he demanded to deny publicly socialists have commitments with ETA, as the organization insinuates.

Lopez Aguilar accused PP of "once more, of giving false hopes to ETA's statements," which described as "absolutely uncharacteristic of the opposition." "It means giving false hopes to a terrorist organization which does not deserve any comment from the government's part," added, convinced that "now as never before, self control, moderation and, of course, loyalty and faith in the government that leads the antiterrorism politics are necessary."

However, Rajoy is constantly asking the government for reasons. Thus, he asserted "it would be good" if a representative of the government would "say it has no commitment with the terrorist organization," "something ETA insinuates in its statement, and that, if true, would be very serious" for the leader of PP. If there is no denial, Rajoy stated "he would have serious doubts whether there was or not a commitment." Lopez Aguilar replied no government "is under an obligation to make comments on statements of a terrorist group."

ETA's "loudspeaker"

The spokesman for the Spanish socialist PSOE party, Diego Lopez Garrido, demanded Rajoy to merely trust the Spanish government, instead of acting as the "loudspeaker" of ETA and using the armed group's opinion as a "territory for political confrontation."

For the socialist leader, conservatives are showing "an unfounded mistrust" especially because "for the first time in 40 years there is no terrorist activity" in Spain.

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