Spectator 5 August 19' 9

the least populated of them, does not form part of the sham 'pre-autonomous' General Basque Council set up earlier this year to the chagrin of Basque nationalists. Once a kingdom of its own, its Carlist requetés sup• Basque threat to ported Franco in the Civil War and after• wards Navarre was ironically given a special William Chislett status while the autonomy granted to the other three provinces by the Republican When Franco died some in Guer• remembering that the Basque country is the government was ruthlessly taken away. nica, the traditional heart of the Basque only region of Spain which the^ing, a tire• The Centre Party controls Navarre, country destroyed during the Civil War, less traveller, has not yet visited. (He did go which has always been a right-wing bastion, toasted his death with French champagne. there once when he was prince to receive an although now it also has a radical left, But when the dictator's system was effec• honorary degree.) In 1974, soon after the exploited by ETA. In an agreement reached tively buried last month with the approval death of Carrero Blanco, ETA made with the other political parties a referendum , by the lower house of the Cortes of the new serious plans to kidnap Juan Carlos and his to decide whether Navarre should join the democratic constitution, there was no family in southern France while they were rest of the Basque country will only be held celebrating by the Basques. Deputies from on holiday - a little-known detail. ETA if an absolute majority of the new Navarran the ruling Centre Party, socialists and com• would have used them as hostages for a diputación is in favour of the idea. The munists gathered in a bar near the Cortes to political amnesty, but the plot never got off Centre Party is expecting to win the munic• drink champagne, but members of the Bas• the ground because one of the organisers ipal elections in Navarre, which have still que Nationalist Party were nowhere to be informed the police. not been held. Opinion polls in Navarre seen. They walked out just before the vote The king recently returned from an offi• point to a minority in favour of joining the protesting that the constitution had cheated cial trip to China (as head of state Franco other three provinces. them of full autonomy. never went further than Hendaye to meet After the summer recess the constitution The occasion was marred not just by the Hitler and the Portuguese border to talk to will gEspañolao to the Senate, the upper house of the Basques breaking the spirit of consensus Salazar), but his advisers still won't let him Cortes, before the national referendum and that has reigned so remarkably in Spain but, go to the Basque country. 'Argala', the man some attempts may well be made to water more seriously, by the killing of an army who set off the explosives which caused down the autonomy clauses, to ensure that general and his aide-de-camp on the very Carrero Blanco's car to be blown up and they cannot be used some day as arguments morning of the vote. It now appears that in whom I met last year in the Biarritz golf for secession. The armed forces have 'as all probability they were shot by the Basque club, is still in hiding in the French Basque their mission to defend the unity of Spain' separatist organisation ETA, and it was no country, although recently he has been to and the hierarchy is obsessed with the idea. coincidence that they were killed on that Algeria where ETA have done much of The day that King Juan Carlos goes to the day. The officers were the first to be mur• their training. Basque country will be much more sig• dered since the Civil War, apart from the Is Spain now to be subjected to a 'strategy nificant than his visit to China. assassination in 1973 by ETA of Franco's of tension' from ETA, which, in spite of its first prime minister, Admiral Luis Carrero influence, numbers no more than a hundred Blanco. No wonder that King Juan Carlos, activists? And will the Basque Nationalist This Publication who should be an exceedingly happy Party recommend that its people abstain monarch now that he has been (almost) when the constitution is put to the nation in is Available in confirmed in his much quoted role as 'king a referendum this autumn? The last time of all ', is a worried man. He may there was a referendum in 1976 over the be king of the , the , the Suarez government's political reforms the MICROFORM , the Aragonese, the abstention rate in two of the four Basque FOR INFORMATION Extremadurans, but he is still not king for provinces was not far short of 50 per cent. A CONTACT: the Basques. TRANSICIÓNsimilar result this time would leave the Bas• Why is it that only now - nearly three que country open to further extremism. years after Franco - the armed forces have The problem is further exacerbated by come under attack? There have been plenty the unresolved issue of the province of of occasions in the past when the main cor• Navarre, where last month's San Fermin nerstone of the regime could have been in festival in Pamplona was called off after riot the firing line of political extremists; but it is police charged into the bullring and pro• almost as if those wishing to throw the coun• duced another martyr. Navarre, the size of University Microfilms International try off its democratic course have con• the other three provinces put together and sidered the military sacrosanct until now. ' MARKS i SPENCER University Policemen, civil guards, Francoist politi• Microfilms cians, industrialists have all fallen in the last International three years, but not the, military. Were the 18 Bedford Row shots fired at the two officers the first in a London, WC1R4EJ new campaign or just an isolated incident? England Adolfo Suarez, the prime minister, told the 300 North Zeeb Road CorteFundacións after the killings: 'I would like to Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 remind you that whenever we have been on USA the point of entering a new phase in this political process.. .terrorism has inter• Name vened with the exclusive end of terrorising Institution the country and of breaking the confidence Address of the government.' The one part of Spain which internal and external forces can exploit for their own publication ends is the Basque country. It is worth 'It keeps them off shop-lifting'