Spain demanded today Tour de France organisers revoke a deal with the banned Batasuna group making Basque an official language of the race amid charges that the pact was a bid to avert terror attacks.
Tour de France director Mr Jean-Marie Leblanc said yesterday he had been "fooled and wronged" by a Basque organisation linked to Batasuna - banned in Spain for links to militant group ETA - into signing an agreement to make Basque an official language.
The European Union and United States have put Batasuna on lists of groups linked to terrorism.
"It is obvious that the Tour has no sympathy with this kind of organisations," Mr Leblanc said. But that did not satisfy Madrid, which said it was "lamentable" that organisers did not know what Batasuna was.
"What I want to demand is the most immediate rectification...from the organisers," Secretary General of the ruling Popular Party and Public Administration Minister Javier Arenas said on Saturday. Spain's right wing press fiercely condemned the deal as an attempt to avoid the race being a target of ETA attacks.
Secretary of State for Sport Juan Antonio Gomez-Angulo took the same view in a statement to state news agency Efe.
"This is a lack of civic courage. We Spaniards know very well what this kind of agreement means, a cover to avoid...terrorism".
Batasuna's French branch disclosed news of the deal on Thursday. Tour organisers said two Basque cultural organisations approached them asking for the commentary at the end of the 16th stage of the cycling race to Bayonne in the French Basque country on July 23rd be made in French and Basque.
"I'm told that of the two organisations who made the request, one is linked to a terrorist or criminal group," Mr Leblanc said. "We were in good faith and have agreed to measures already applied in 1996 in Hendaye." It was common practice for road signs and commentaries at the finish to be made in two languages when the Tour went through different regions or countries.