Irate Spaniards unite to isolate pro-ETA party

MADRID, July 16: Spaniards outraged by the killing of a young politician are moving to isolate the political arm of the Basque separatist g...

MADRID, July 16: Spaniards outraged by the killing of a young politician are moving to isolate the political arm of the Basque separatist group responsible for the killing.

Leaders of Spain’s largest political parties and labour unions joined forces on Tuesday in condemning Herri Batasuna, which they consider an accomplice in the separatist group ETA’s murder of a Basque politician.

Miguel Angel Blanco was fatally wounded by ETA on Saturday after being held hostage for two days. The 29-year-old councilman was found handcuffed and shot on Saturday afternoon in a wooded area near the Basque city of San Sebastian.

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Spain’s largest opposition party, the Socialists, pledged to cease working with parties holding “ambiguous” views about ETA’s violent campaign for a Basque homeland. In the victim’s hometown, a notice signed by the slain politician’s friends called for a boycott of stores owned by Herri Batasuna’s supporters. These actions came a day after nearly three million people,including more than one million each in Madrid and Barcelona, marched to protest Blanco’s murder.

Sounding a rare defensive note, Herri Batasuna spokesman Florenaoiz said his party “doesn’t wish on anybody what Blanco suffered.” But he insisted the killing was the result of Spain’s failure to transfer ETA inmates to prisons in the Basque region. ETA had given the government 48 hours to do so after kidnapping Blanco, a member of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar’s Popular Party.