One year ago this week the Basque separatist movement ETA declared an indefinite ceasefire in its campaign of terrorism against the Spanish state, which has caused some 700 deaths over the past 35 years.
As the country celebrates the first anniversary of the truce, Spaniards are questioning just how much progress has been made over the past 12 months. Political parties of all shades are indulging in mutual recriminations. Nationalists blame the government for failing to move the process forward and start negotiations with the ETA. The government blames the ETA for not making their ceasefire permanent or handing over any arms.
True, terrorism has stopped. In fact there had been no fatalities for three months before the ceasefire. However the ETA campaign of kale borroka, or `street struggle', has continued virtually unabated.
Gangs of youths rampage through the streets smashing windows, throwing stones and firebombs and causing millions of pounds worth of damage.
But they have inflicted only minor human injuries.
Over the years successive Spanish governments decided to disperse ETA prisoners to jails around the country to prevent them forming large cliques in prisons where any of those considering renouncing violence could be influenced and pressured by other prisoners.
In many cases this created great hardships and meant that families were often forced to travel great distances to visit imprisoned relatives. One of the loudest demands of all three Basque nationalist parties - only one supports the ETA - has been to bring the prisoners nearer home.
Last week, just 10 days before the anniversary, the government made a symbolic gesture. The Interior Minister announced that some ETA prisoners would be transferred to jails in or near the Basque Country.
Mr Jaime Mayor Oreja said that 180 prisoners had been released over the past year, either because they had served their sentences or had been acquitted of their charges, and that of the 405 remaining in prison he intended to order the transfer of 105 of them.
But, he warned, there would be no more "gestures" until the truce was consolidated.
The announcement failed to satisfy Basque nationalists. Mr Juan Maria Atutxa, the president of the Basque parliament and a member of the moderate Basque Nationalist Party, declared himself "disappointed and feeling cheated" and accused the government of using the prisoners as political tools, while others described the decision as "insufficient".
Just over a year ago, several Basque political parties signed the Lizarra Pact which, for the first time, brought Euskal Herritarrok, ETA's political front, into mainstream politics. EH joined the moderate nationalist parties, against the governing Popular Party and opposition Socialists, in a united demand for self-determination.
The signatories to the pact met again in the town of Durango last weekend to review progress. They condemned both the Spanish and French governments for their "immobility", and said they were disappointed at the lack of progress "towards peace and democracy" over the past year.
It was revealed at the weekend that secret contacts have taken place over the past few months between representatives of the government and ETA, both in Spain and in Switzerland. The talks apparently broke down when the government refused to accept the concept of self-determination, and last month both sides announced that they had reached a stalemate.
The agreement to move at least some prisoners nearer to home is a gesture towards appeasing the ETA without making too many concessions.