Saturday, June 10, 2006

No More Euphemisms

For years now several news outlets have been calling the Partido Popular and other groups and institutions in Spain by the term "conservative".

Finally, here comes an article that calls them by what they are, right-wingers.

And let us remember that the right wing in Spain is still to come clean from all the crimes commited by Francisco Franco's regime.

The article contains one more departure from the old cover up that had people thinking that Spain is a democracy. The author is very adamant to indicate that the right wing in Spain opposes peace, just like that, clear and simple.

Here you have it, it appeared at Yahoo News:

Spanish right-wing marches against Basque peace talks

by Marie-Noelle Valles

Sat Jun 10, 4:24 PM ET

Spain's right-wing opposition and other conservative groups marched through Madrid evening to protest at the Socialist government's plans for peace talks with armed Basque separatist group ETA.

The march, organized by the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) and backed by the right-wing Popular Party (PP), brought together people opposed to plans by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to start peace talks with ETA, following the latter's declaration of a permanent ceasefire.

The PP claimed 1.1 million people turned out for the march under the banner of "Negotiations, not in my name", but police put the number at 200,000.

They gathered in Madrid's Plaza de Colon (Columbus Square) at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) brandishing placards saying "Zapatero, traitor" and "War on ETA".

The "interlocutors that the government considers valid are assassins that have killed nearly a thousand people," said AVT president Francisco Jose Alcaraz, whose brother and two nieces were killed in an ETA attack in 1987.

ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths during a four-decade campaign for an independent Basque homeland comprising parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. But it has not been held responsible for any deaths since May 2003.

On March 22 this year, ETA declared a permanent ceasefire, opening the way to direct dialogue with the government and to negotiations between the political parties in Spain's northern Basque region.

PP leader Mariano Rajoy said he hoped the government "takes good note of presence of hundreds of thousands of Spaniards who say that in no case can we negotiate or pay a political price to a terrorist organisation."

But Zapatero said earlier Saturday he was convinced he had the support of most Spaniards in opening talks.

"The great majority of Spaniards know what it means to submit to the pain and horrors we have experienced and at what point it is worth making peace," he said.

The PP was ousted by the Socialists in March 2004 after PP leaders blamed ETA for the devastating Madrid bombings of four days earlier, despite increasing evidence that they were the work of Islamic extremists.

On Tuesday the PP broke off ties with the government after the Basque branch of the ruling Socialist Party announced it planned to pursue talks with ETA's banned political wing Batasuna.

That ended the fragile and short-lived truce between government and opposition over the launch of the peace process.

Zapatero has now delayed asking parliament to formally approve a timetable and structure for negotiations with ETA and Batasuna until after June 18.

Other groups representing victims of ETA violence protested at the politicisation of their cause, saying "certain people" were wrongly claiming to represent them.

"From 1981 to 2003, we victims of terrorism never entered into party (political) problems of any kind," they said in a joint statement on Friday.

"Politicians do what they have to do. We must not interfere. All we demand is that the government use all means to end violence," Jesus Ramirez, vice president of one of the signatory groups, told AFP.

These groups also rejected attempts to link the Basque peace process to the bomb attacks that destroyed four commuter trains in Madrid on March 11, 2004, four days before the general election.

An investigation into the bombings, which killed 191 people, ruled out any involvement by ETA but the PP and AVT still insist responsibility for the attacks has not been clarified.

At its last protest in February the AVT claimed to have attracted 1.7 million people. The police figure was 110,000.

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