PP ramps up pre-electoral rhetoric over demise of ETA

Terrorism has reared its head in the electoral campaign. The Socialists and the Popular Party (PP) on Tuesday squared off on the perceived imminent demise of ETA, with the latter keen to remove some of the sheen from the aura of Socialist candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba's tenure as interior minister.

Javier Arenas, vice-secretary general of the PP, accused Rubalcaba of never having desired "one hundred percent the defeat of ETA" and of "leaving the door open for dialogue and negotiation." With general elections looming in November, the PP has targeted the emergence of Bildu and its probable entry into Congress. Arenas challenged the government to stop Bildu, the pro-independence platform that swept the Basque Country board in local and municipal elections in May, from standing in November.

Although the decision lies with the Constitutional Court, the PP aims to make Rubalcaba pay a price for the abertzale left's presence in the political sphere. Rubalcaba, speaking on Radio Euskadi, termed calls for Bildu to be excluded "opportunistic petitions." Two years after the last bomb attack on Spanish soil, Rubalcaba said "we are in the final straight toward the end of the terrorist group and there's no need to put our foot down."

The Socialist warned that the Bildu coalition had "taken a backward step" in its dealings with ETA, shifting from an "energetic discourse against ETA to a more complacent stand."