Hundreds of thousands of people took part in peace rallies on Saturday in Madrid and in the Basque city of Bilbao to protest a deadly attack two weeks ago by the armed Basque separatist group ETA.
Nearly 175,000 people staged a march through the Spanish capital under the banner "For peace, against terrorism," according to the city council. A further 80,000 gathered in Bilbao, police said.
Both demonstrations were to protest at an ETA bombing in a carpark at Madrid airport on Dec. 30 that killed two Ecuadorans and blew a hole in efforts by Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to negotiate a lasting peace in the Basque region.
The Madrid event had drawn 174,800 people onto the streets by 6:25pm, the city council said in a statement.
Members of the Socialist government joined the marchers, as did hundreds of Ecuadorans wishing to honor their dead compatriots, Diego Armando Estacio and Carlos Alonso Palate.
But the main opposition party, the conservative Popular Party (PP), refused to attend the demonstration because it did not include a clear call "to defeat ETA" by police and legal means.
"The saddest thing is that the political parties are incapable of agreeing to demonstrate for something as simple as peace," lamented 43-year-old shop worker Miguel Melgar.
The powerful pro-PP Association of the Victims of Terrorism also shunned the marches.
The silent march in Bilbao began around 5pm, with police estimating the crowd at 80,000.
"It is important to say to ETA that Basque society is against violence. Once peace is established we can begin a dialogue but we have had enough of attacks and violence," said protester Aritz, who works in real estate.
Unrest continued in the Basque region in the run-up to the protests, according to Vasco Press news agency, which reported several acts of violence and arrests overnight.
The head of the moderate Basque nationalist party that leads the Basque regional government, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, was among the Bilbao marchers, who called for peace and dialogue with the Spanish government.
But ETA's banned political wing, Batasuna, was absent from the rally. The Basque branch of the Socialist Party had threatened not to participate if Batasuna, which has not condemned the ETA attack last month, took part.
For nearly four decades ETA waged a struggle for an independent Basque homeland comprising parts of northern Spain and southwestern France that has claimed more than 800 lives.
In March last year it declared a unilateral and "permanent" ceasefire, prompting Zapatero's government to launch efforts to negotiate a lasting peace in the Basque region.
But the peace process was beset with difficulties. It was opposed outright by the PP, no formal direct talks took place and the Madrid airport bomb last month scuppered the efforts.
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