No regrets, says ETA-scandal Catalan leader

30 January 2004

BARCELONA – The former Catalan leader who resigned over secret meetings with ETA left government Friday ‘with no regrets’.

Joseph Lluis Carod-Rovira resigned after a newspaper exposed his secret meetings with members of ETA earlier this month and last year.

Carod claimed he met the ETA members in an effort to secure a deal to stop future attacks on Catalonia.

But the scandal provoked condemnation from all sides of the political spectrum and has damaged the chances of the beleaguered socialist opposition from regaining power at the general election on 14 March.

Carod, leader of the socialist nationalist ERC party, said Friday: “I made a mistake as head of the government, but not as a head of my party.”

Carod appeared in front of the Catalan parliament to explain his meeting with the terrorists.

“If it helped to save one death we can’t pay a political or judicial price,” he insisted.

Carod reiterated the criticism of the PP and accused them of using the security services for their own electoral ends.

Pascual Maragall, joint socialist head of the tripartite regional government, compared Carod to John Hulme, the SDLP socialist leader in Northern Ireland and one of those widely acknowledged with helping secure a peace deal in the province.

Maragall accused the government of using the security services to help the ruling conservative Popular Party to regain power at the forthcoming election.

He said this would “put in danger” informers in the fight against terrorism.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news