Spain: The latest terror tactics by Basque group Eta appear to be an attempt to strengthen its negotiating position, Paddy Woodworth writes from Vitoria.
One weekend a peace move, next weekend a bomb.
The Basque terrorist group Eta is maintaining a high profile by switching tactics between apparent moves towards a ceasefire - politicians were removed from the group's list of targets nine days ago - and carefully selected symbolic attacks.
On Saturday evening, the group chose the Peineta sports stadium in Madrid for a car bombing.
This venue is at the heart of the city's cherished bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
An early warning and swift police response prevented any casualties. Even the damage to property was slight. But the damage to Madrid's Olympic prospects is much harder to assess.
The timing of the attack was significant: the International Olympic Council will decide on the venue on July 6th next, and security will be a key factor. Eta certainly also had another event in mind when it selected last Saturday for the attack.
This was the investiture as Basque first minister of Juan José Ibarretxe, which took place at the traditional site in Gernika earlier the same day.
Ibarretxe's Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) has governed the Basque autonomous region, alone or in coalition, since 1980.
Last week, however, he had to rely on votes from the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (EHAK) to squeeze into first position.
Most observers regard EHAK as a surrogate party for Batasuna, which has been banned for the last three years under draconian legislation designed to curb political support for Eta.
Just over a month ago, Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero made a controversial offer to engage in "dialogue" with Eta, but only on the condition that the group totally abandoned violence.
Mr Ibarretxe's PNV regards this as a positive but insufficient step, and last week proposed to fast-track a peace process by inviting the still illegal Batasuna to round-table talks, regardless of Eta's actions in the meantime.
Mr Zapatero's Socialist Party (PSOE) has said it will not attend such talks. Neither will the biggest Spanish opposition party, the conservative Partido Popular (PP), which regards even Mr Zapatero's offer as a grossly irresponsible concession to terrorism.
Eta's Madrid attack also comes just before next Thursday's signing off on the final report on the parliamentary commission into the Madrid train bombings which killed almost 200 people on March 11th, 2004.
This report also illustrates how deeply divided Spain's democrats are on the terrorism issue. While PSOE and all the other parties agree that the bombs were the work of Islamists, the PP continues to insist that Eta may have been behind the massacre, and will not subscribe to most sections of the report.
In this fractious political atmosphere, Eta's new bombing campaign appears calculated to give this greatly weakened group a stronger hand at any future negotiations.