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Talking to the Basque terrorist group eta has long been anathema to Spanish governments. But Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero seems prepared to bite the bullet this time. The Spanish Congress last week passed a resolution giving the government authority to negotiate with eta - if it lays down its arms. Batasuna, the banned political party close to eta, welcomed the move. "We think it's a step in the right direction," says Arnaldo Otegi, Batasuna's spokesman. The opposition Popular Party (PP) and victims' groups are livid, accusing Zapatero of providing eta with what...
...bomb outside a Madrid convention center hours before the opening of ARCO, Spain's international contemporary art fair. The bomb, which injured 43, was the third since Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the Batasuna party - ETA's political wing - indicated a willingness to talk to Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government. In January Otegi had offered the group's support if Zapatero opted to become "the Spanish Tony Blair," a reference to the British PM's efforts to secure a Northern Ireland peace deal. Zapatero said he was willing to listen to Batasuna, but only once...
...three-and-a-half hours last week, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero sat down and talked with the President of the Basque region, Juan José Ibarretxe - something that Zapatero's predecessor, José María Aznar, refused to do during his last four years in office. But the chat only confirmed that they had nothing to talk about. In late December, the Basque regional parliament approved Ibarretxe's controversial proposal for a "free association" between the Basque Country and Spain. Under the plan, the wealthy northeastern region and its 2 million inhabitants would...
...places like Britain and Denmark, and accelerate Euroskepticism elsewhere. The topic took center stage at last week's meeting of European Socialist leaders in Madrid. "Voting yes for the European constitution is a step forward; voting no is a step backward toward crisis," Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero advised the French Socialists. Hollande agrees: "The European left, Europeans in general, and all our fellow French citizens have waited to see how we vote," he told Time after the Montpellier rally. "It's the constitution's first test by a large party in a founding...
...than asking them to die for it. But the fertility crisis has reached such a dire pass that politicians are beginning to speak out. In a letter to their E.U. colleagues last month, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Prime Ministers José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain and Göran Persson of Sweden urged the Union to "take new action to sustain Europe's demography and better reconcile professional, personal and family life with the aim of permitting couples to have as many babies as they want." Ron Lesthaeghe, a demographer...