THOUSANDS of people have protested in Madrid against plans by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister, to open peace talks with Eta, the Basque separatist organisation.

The organisers of Saturday evening’s demonstration — the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) and the Popular Party, the main conservative opposition — were surprised at the huge turnout, when an estimated 300,000 demonstrators marched in an area of northeast Madrid.

The Plaza República Dominicana was the scene 19 years ago of one of Eta’s worst attacks in the capital when 12 trainee Civil Guard traffic policemen were killed and many more were maimed when a car bomb exploded next to their bus. More than 800 people have been killed during Eta’s 40-year campaign for an independent Basque state.

Victims of Eta and al-Qaeda attacks were pushed in wheelchairs at the head of the march. A banner read: “For them, for all, negotiation in my name, no.”

Not far behind were leaders of the Popular Party including José María Aznar, the former Prime Minister who survived an Eta assassination attempt in 1995 and whose election defeat after last year’s Madrid bombings which catapulted Señor Zapatero to power.

Alongside Señor Aznar was Mariano Rajoy, his successor as party leader, who refused to support a motion in the Spanish Parliament two weeks ago which authorised talks between the Government and Eta if the terror group abandoned violence and disarmed.

An internet survey conducted by the conservative ABC newspaper showed that 72.5 per cent of readers oppose negotiations. Señor Zapatero’s slender lead over the Popular Party in opinion polls has also slipped after the parliamentary vote.

Francisco José Alcaraz, president of the AVT, said that the proposed talks with Eta were a “betrayal as much of the dead as those who are here”. He added: “I want to remind the Government and those who supported the crazy proposal in the Congress about who are the ones who shoot you in the neck: these are the vermin with whom they are disposed to negotiate.”

Juan Cotino, a former national police chief who attended the demonstration, said: “I’ve only got one piece of advice for Zapatero.

“The only ones who can talk to terrorists are the police who interrogate them and the judges who lock them up.”

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