Spain's Socialist Party assembled in Madrid yesterday for its 35th congress under the shadow of one of the worst crises of the its century-long history and in a mood of confrontation and division. During the three-day congress the 998 PSOE delegates must put their house in order and elect a new secretary general to replace Mr Joaquin Almunia, who resigned immediately after the socialists' dismal defeat in the general elections in March.
The PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol) has been run in the interim by Mr Manuel Chavez, president of the autonomous region of Andalucia, who is not standing as a candidate.
Far from using the past four months to heal its wounds, the PSOE comes to Madrid more deeply divided than ever, having had four party leaders in only four years. The delegates have not even settled their differences sufficiently to decide on a formula to elect Mr Alumia's successor.
Four candidates have been proposed - none of them a clear favourite. One of congress's first tasks will be to decide whether to accept a single ballot and a simple majority or whether a runoff should be held if no candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the votes.
Two of the candidates - the MEP Ms Rosa Diez, a moderate and independently-minded Basque, and Ms Matilde Fernandez, on the left of the party and close to Mr Felipe Gonzalez's former friend and now bitter enemy Alfonso Guerra - favour a two-round vote, although this is just about the only point the two women agree on. On the opposite side, their competitors, Mr Jose Bono, the president of the Castilla La Mancha region and an independently-minded Christian liberal socialist, and Mr Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a supporter of Felipe Gonzalez, both prefer a single ballot, but are equally divided on all other issues.
In spite of many hours of behind-the-scenes negotiating, the four remain as far apart as they were when they declared their candidacies two months ago. The battle lines are drawn and the fighting is expected to continue well into Sunday night.
Just about the only point on which all delegates were united was in their warm welcome to Jose Asenjo, the socialist from Malaga, who had a narrow escape on Wednesday when a bomb placed under his car by Basque separatists ETA failed to explode. He was greeted with a standing ovation and embraced by delegates as he made his way through the crowded hall.
Meanwhile, a police raid on an apartment in the Basque capital Vitoria appears to have dealt a serious blow to ETA and given the security forces valuable information on its activities.
In addition to arms and bomb-making equipment, they found files and lists of names of politicians who may have been possible targets.
National Police investigating Jarai, the youth wing of ETA, burst into the apartment shortly after dawn yesterday.
Although there was no one on the premises, the police discovered 90 bombs already primed to put under the cars of victims, 70 kg of dynamite from the three tons stolen from a mining plant in Britanny in France almost two years ago, as well as fuses and detonators and three pistols and one sub machine-gun.
In Madrid yesterday Mr Juan Cotino, the director general of the National Police, described the find as "very important" and told reporters the operation was still continuing. "The apartment contains fingerprints and traces of the occupants of the flat, probably three of them, and we hope to trace them soon," he said. Several hours earlier, a caller claiming to represent ETA alerted police to a bomb planted in a car in Malaga. Police evacuated more than 50 families from the city centre overnight before safely deactivating the device.