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State of the Nation
 | | The PNV Basque Nationalist Spokesman, Josu Erkoreka, in Congress today - Photo EFE | Partido Popular leader Mariano Rajoy looked exhausted after his duel with an in-form Prime Minister Zapatero
Jul 4, 2007 - 7:14 PMEDITORIAL COMMENT -
That the State of the Nation Debate would represent the start of the General Election campaign was to be expected. That the leader of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, would bring up the subject of ETA and the Government’s anti-terrorism policy, despite his promise of support for the Government on the matter just weeks ago, also.
But after the first slick speech given by Rajoy, full of sharp and well-prepared sound bites, it was obvious that in the following exchanges between him and Zapatero, the PP leader was floundering badly.
Repeating demands that the minutes of the Government’s talks with ETA be revealed, or that the election should be brought forward, was simply ineffective for Rajoy. Basque newspaper Gara has already effectively published all the details demanded by Rajoy, whose concentration on ETA only gave the Basque terrorists far more publicity than they could ever have hoped for.
Accusing the Prime Minister of lying about ETA, when discretion about talks was expected by all sides, is also an erroneous strategy by Rajoy. We all knew that negotiations were taking place as Zapatero had achieved support for the same in a vote in Congress.
It was Margaret Thatcher who talked about the oxygen of publicity with regard to the IRA terrorists. Rajoy has put the terrorists at the centre of the election campaign.
The Spanish public still remember that it was the Partido Popular who lied (or at least misled) about ETA involvement regarding the March 11th Train Bombings – it cost them the last General Election. Their ongoing support of the ETA conspiracy theories could cost them the next one, given that no evidence in the National Court case, now ready for sentencing, was heard to support their wishes.
If Mariano Rajoy and the Partido Popular really do feel that ETA is the by far most important matter facing the Spanish nation today, and they have the full right to think so, then Zapatero’s comments about the PP forming a pact with the more extreme nationalists for power in Navarra were spot on.
If the interest in the Basque region is so great in the Partido Popular, and the subject deemed to be of such importance, then why the absolutely shameful image of just five PP deputies in their congress seats today when the PNV Basque Nationalist Party Spokesman, Josu Erkoreka, was taking his turn to speak?
The Prime Minister had a good day yesterday. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is not generally a gifted speaker in the chamber, but he was well prepared, eloquent and even witty on occasions. His belief in his policies and what the Government has achieved over the past three years was, for once, clear to see.
It was the Socialist deputies who were visibly the happiest in the corridors of power after the confrontation. Concern showed on the faces of the Partido Popular, and Mariano Rajoy – well, he simply looked exhausted. How long before a leadership challenge comes from over his right hand shoulder?
If the mistaken PP tactic of concentrating campaigning on ETA between here and the spring General Election does not change, it will be the second time that the Basque terrorists will have played a role in the Partido Popular losing an election, and Zapatero will have four years more to practice his public speaking as the Prime Minister of Spain.
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