Reuters AlertNet Lite - Spanish PM visits policeman hurt in ETA shooting

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Spanish PM visits policeman hurt in ETA shooting

04 Dec 2007 16:21:09 GMT
Source: Reuters

BORDEAUX, France, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Spain's prime minister on Tuesday visited a comatose policeman after a weekend shooting by ETA gunmen pushed the government's policies in the Basque Country back into the pre-electoral spotlight.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was booed on Sunday when he attended the funeral of a second policeman who did not survive the point-blank shooting after crossing paths with ETA members in a cafe in Capbreton, southern France, on Saturday.

Just as debate ahead of what seems set to be a close-fought general election in March had shifted largely to the economy, ETA's first killing in almost a year awakened memories of Zapatero's failed attempt to negotiate peace with the separatist group, which he broke off late last year.

Top members of the opposition conservative Popular Party, who have attacked Zapatero's approach to the conflict and are behind his Socialists in opinion polls, will take part in an anti-ETA march in Madrid on Tuesday. But with Socialists likely to be jeered, their presence will be low key.

Zapatero travelled to the French hospital bedside of policeman Fernando Trapero, 23, in a coma after the attack.

"I join in the same feelings that all Spaniards feel who are thinking of Fernando, who has been hurt so savagely, so unjustly, so intolerably," Zapatero told reporters.

ETA has killed more than 800 people in four decades of armed struggle for independence for Basque territories in northern Spain and southern France. (Reporting by Itziar Reinlein and Claude Canellas; Writing by Jane Barrett; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)

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Last updated:Tue Dec 4 16:19:44 2007