| Posted on the off-chance that Europe still matters. |
Eta declared a permanent ceasefire on 22 March. The group has been waging an armed campaign for more than 30 years and is blamed for more than 800 deaths.
| Used to be murderers were prosecuted. |
Spain's opposition Popular Party (PP) recently broke off co-operation with the government, after the Basque branch of the Socialist Party said it would pursue talks with Batasuna, Eta's banned political wing.
Mr Zapatero stressed that "democracy will not pay any political price to achieve peace" with Eta and he did not give a date for the start of talks. "The process is going to be long, tough and difficult. We'll handle it with determination and prudence, with unity and loyalty and always with respect to the memory of the victims," he said.
| Utter nonsense. He's 90% of the way to conceding everything the ETA wants. |
Surveys show that the majority of Spaniards support his attempt to bring peace to the Basque region, but a large minority are completely against talking to Eta, the BBC's Danny Wood reports from Madrid. Many victims' associations accuse the prime minister of surrendering to terrorism. They say the only way to defeat Eta is through the justice system and police actions.
| Any group of people that considers themselves a nation will be one. Any nation that considers itself more than one group of people won't be a nation for very long. |