Madrid Tries to Block Basque Vote

The Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, is trying to fend off plans by the nationalist Basque regional government to hold a referendum on self-determination.

His rightwing People's party and the Socialist opposition were reported yesterday to be coordinating their efforts to prevent the premier of the semi-autonomous Basque region, Juan Jose Ibarretxe of the Basque Nationalist party, putting the issue to a vote: an act likely to send shockwaves across Spain

Mr Ibarretxe announced the plan on Friday as a direct response to Mr Aznar's attempts to ban Batasuna, the radical separatist party allied to Eta.

Eta increased the tension in the Basque region yesterday by threatening to extend its campaign of bomb attacks to the public meetings and the offices of the two main political parties.

"As of this moment, the offices of the fascist PP [People's] and PSOE [Spanish Workers' Socialist] parties are military objectives," the statement published in Gara, a pro-independence daily, said.

The Socialist leader, Rodriguez Zapatero, warned Mr Ibarretxe yesterday that his plans "did not help the unity of democrats". The People's party leader in the Basque parliament, Jaime Mayor Oreja, said Mr Ibarretxe should put "an immediate stop" to his self-determination plans.

The referendum announcement was an historic moment for the non-violent Basque Nationalist party, which has run the regional government for the past 19 years and has never hidden its aim of independence in the long term.

Mr Ibarretxe's proposal appears to take the Anglo-Spanish talks on Gibraltar as a model for how a new Basque state might be organised, calling for a form of "shared sovereignty".

He also called for the Basque country to become a self-governing state that would be "freely associated" to Spain - and "associated" to the EU.

The only existing model of a state that is "freely associated" with another is Puerto Rico and the US. Shared sovereignty is not currently practised anywhere in the world.

Mr Ibarretxe said that within a year he would present Mr Aznar's government with a draft agreement including these concepts, and would demand full recognition of Basque self-government, including a fully independent judicial system and the right to make its own international treaties and to call its own referendums.

A referendum on his proposals would be held whether or not Madrid agreed to it, he said. He said opinion polls showed that 80% of Basques "wanted to decide their own future".

But he warned Eta that he would not call the referendum until the group, which murdered a Spanish police officer with a bomb attack last week, stopped the campaign of killings that has claimed 837 lives in 30 years.

People's party leaders have accused him of cosying up to Eta and trying to win votes from the suspended Batasuna party. "He is supporting the separatist ideals of Eta," the deputy prime minister, Rodrigo Rato, said.

They also warned that a referendum would be illegal unless called by the national parliament in Madrid.

But Catalan nationalists who run the semi-autonomous government in their north-eastern region called on Mr Aznar to treat the proposals seriously. They were backed by nationalists in Galicia, in the north-west.

Yesterday Eta claimed responsibility for the death last Tuesday of a policeman, Juan Carlos Beiro, who was killed - and four other policemen were injured - when they tried to take down a sign near Pamplona bearing Eta's logo.

It added that Hodei Galarraga and Egoitz Gurrutxaga, who blew themselves up on Monday night while apparently preparing a bomb attack, were Eta members.

Eta is classified as a terrorist organisation by Spain, the European Union and the United States.