Spain Papers Review - Thursday May 22 2008

Spain Papers Review - Thursday May 22 2008
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By h.b. - May 22, 2008 - 9:42 AM

Today's El País front page

The papers in Spain are dominated by the latest security force success against the Basque terrorist group ETA.

El Mundo headlines that the it was the ex Mayor of Andoain which led the police to the man considered to be ETA’s number one.
El Mundo calls José Antonio Barandiarán ‘The Mayor of Death’ and says he was followed to the French town of Arcachón where he met with the ETA leader known as Thierry.
El Mundo has a photo of Thierry in police custody and shouting. That’s all he can do now, says El Mundo.
El País also has a photo of López Peña shouting at the camera, and says the police action has left ETA without its hardline leader. The paper considers he was the man who led ETA to his line of maximum violence, and notes that the Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez-Rubalcaba described the arrests as the most important operation ‘in years’.
ABC says that López Peña was the current military head of the terrorists, who ordered all the latest attacks. The paper has the same photo as El País as does Público.
Público remembers a forecast made by López Peña – ‘They will never catch me’ – the paper says he was wrong thinking that claiming French nationality and his own security measures would protect him.
La Vanguardia considers that the political branch of ETA has been broken up.

The second main story is the split in the Partido Popular with the head of the party in the Basque Region, María San Gil, saying she will not stand for re-election.
El Mundo says that she goes in the face of the indifference from Rajoy. The paper says that he only asked her to ‘think about it’.
The paper notes that Rajoy gave her just 45 minutes of his time, while he spent an entire afternoon with Josep Pique.
El Mundo considers the departure of María San Gil as the largest crisis yet seen in the Partido Popular.
El País says she has certainly made the crisis in the party worse, saying she decided to break with Rajoy after what the paper describes as a tense meeting. The paper says the PP leader was unable to convince her with his plans.
ABC leads with the meeting, and says it was 50 minutes of a cold meeting. The paper says Maria San Gil told Rajoy again that she had no confidence in him and he responded by saying that he would always support her, whatever decision she made.

In international news:
El País notes that Israel is to negotiate peace with Syria, to try and end 60 years of war. The paper says that Turkey is mediating in the talks. The return of the Golan heights and the breaking of the alliance between Damascus and Tehran are seen as the key points.

El Mundo notes that the Berlusconi government in Italy is to confiscate the homes which are rented out to immigrants without papers.
El País considers that the actions of Berlusconi are converting all paperless immigrants into criminals.

Back in Spain, El Mundo notes that transport workers have said they are going to start strike action, and do so as oil prices rose a record five dollars a barrel in just one day.

ABC reports that the Socialist party have offered the PP a pact on the reform of the citizenship classes. The paper says the Secretary of State for Education has ‘an open hand’ for negotiations on the matter.

La Vanguardia tells us that there are 24,000 Catalans on the waiting list for help under the new dependency laws.

And finally,
El Mundo tells us that an adolescent has called on the judge to send his parents to jail for five months, claiming a lack of attention and abandonment.

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