Spain fears ETA attack during EU Presidency

ETA, the Basque separatist group, could carry out a high profile attack or kidnapping during Spain's six-month presidency of the European Union which starts on January 1, Spain's Interior Minister said on Monday.

Speaking in the Basque Country, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said that Spain's security forces would be on high alert, particularly against ETA, during Spain’s term as EU president, saying how "ETA cannot keep itself out of these international settings”.

He went on to say "This leads us to increase our vigilance, to think that ETA might be thinking of committing a spectacular attack ... to make it visible during the six months of the European presidency."

He said the attack could include a kidnapping to get international publicity for its aim to create an independent Basque state in parts of northern Spain and southern France.

ETA, which has killed more than 850 people in the last four decades in bombings and shootings, used kidnapping as one of its main tactics to get attention in the 1980s and 1990s. Its most publicized kidnapping was in 1997 when it took and shot Miguel Angel Blanco, a Basque Politician, after a 48-hour ultimatum to the Spanish government to transfer all ETA prisoners throughout Spain to prisons in the Basque region.

It is believed that ETA have been weakened by numerous arrests in recent years throughout France and Spain but that it is still capable of inflicting considerable damage.

Many Basques are in favour of independence from Spain, although only a very small minority support, or even sympathise with ETA, recent polls have shown. The last Basque peace process started in March 2006 but ended less than a year later when a bomb at Barajas airport exploded killing 2 people.