From Alexander Ward, New Atlanticist: Since Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), the Basque separatist group that killed over 800 people over a forty-year spree, declared a ceasefire on January 10, 2011, Spaniards have markedly downgraded the importance of domestic terrorism. Considered Spain’s biggest problem (due to Spanish terrorism and the Madrid train bombings) as recently as 2007, only 0.4 percent of Spaniards considered terrorism a pertinent issue in an April 2013 poll, trailing behind concerns such as government corruption, social security, the struggling economy, banks, austerity, and politicians. Looking at official reports, it seems like dormant threats are waking once again in Spain. The State Department’s “Country Reports on Terrorism 2012 – Europe” shows ETA continues to train in Venezuela and maintains connections with the FARC in Colombia. Further, according to EUROPOL’s “TE-SAT 2012” report, the European police agency’s continental terrorism threat assessment, ETA’s “recruitment of new members and the collection of information on new and future targets [is] still ongoing.”
But that’s just ETA. EUROPOL’s report also mentions the Galician pro-independence group Resistencia Galega (RG), which has carried out twelve attacks in Spain’s northwestern territory. RG had been planning “coordinated attacks,” claims EUROPOL, which were to be executed on “the anniversary of the approval of the Spanish Constitution,” a symbol of Spanish unity. While prominent members of the group have been arrested, RG continues to be Spain’s only active group, and one that refuses to quit. . . .
Looking at the data on Spain’s economic situation, all the Atlantic’s Matt O’Brien could say was Spain is “beyond doomed” and that it is “one of the most terrifying things” he had ever studied. Spain’s 26.7 percent unemployment rate doesn’t tell the whole story. Spain’s youth unemployment rate, for hopeful workers under twenty-five, is 56.4 percent, according to Eurostat. . . .
The center-right government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been trying to centralize more authority in Spanish capital in order to enact reforms that the IMF claims it desperately needs. The deal Rajoy offered the regions—more funding in exchange for more central control over finances—was rebuffed, leading to more cries for independence in places like Catalonia as well as a popularity drop. In addition, the nationalist party won elections in the Basque Country because of “tensions between central government and the regions on whether to reduce the provinces’ power.” Later, separatist parties won regional elections in Catalonia on the same grounds, although not convincingly. This centralization of power reminds many of Spain’s generations of the dictator Franco who put all control in himself (as dictators are wont to do) and tried to homogenize Spain by getting rid of regional dialects like Catalan and Basque while simultaneously imposing a pan-Catholic culture on Spain’s citizens. . . .
The return of crippling terrorism in Spain is not unavoidable. The country has some of the best antiterrorism officers in the world due to years of experience and once powerful units like ETA are in one of their weakest positions ever. But the chance of this occurring in one or all three regions is certainly a possibility. With unemployment lasting more than two years rising sharply, and with corruption charges attributed to Rajoy and King Juan Carlos, anger toward the Spanish state is certainly on the rise. Young men (and women) with nothing to do may have no choice but to take up arms in (futile) hopes that their situation will improve. (photo: Wikimedia)
