SPAIN: When the Basque leader Juan José Ibarretxe stood at the dais in the Spanish Congress yesterday, he was the first president of an autonomous region to do so since the democratic constitution was approved in 1978.
It was such an unusual occasion that no one knew where he should sit and special arrangements had to be made to find him a seat on one side of the chamber to allow him to follow the debate.
Security was tight and police had taken over the vicinity of the Cortes (parliament) building from early morning.
The Lehendakari, or president of the Basque government, came to Madrid with the support of a busload of members of the Basque parliament to defend his controversial Ibarretxe plan in which he aims to turn the Basque country into an associated free state, parallel but separate from Spain.
His plan was approved by an absolute majority of the Basque parliament at the end of last year, but only with the votes of the Sozialista Abertzaleak, which arose from the ashes of the banned Herri Batasuna party, ETA's political front, although Mr Ibarretxe has always stressed he would never govern with the support of a party which did not condemn terrorist violence.
Most Spaniards fear greater autonomy for the regions could lead to the break-up of national unity, with other regions following the Basque example and demanding their own free-state status.
The Ibarretxe plan calls for the right of self-determination for the Basque people to determine their future - one of ETA's principal demands - the right for Basque nationality, a separate judiciary and the right to negotiate their own treaties with foreign countries. However, he stops short of calling for full independence, since this would mean the Basque country leaving the EU.
Mr Ibarretxe, who began and ended his 40-minute address in Euskera (the Basque language), told the packed chamber that he had come with "an outstretched hand to open a process of negotiation". The final vote was an overwhelming 219 to 23 vote defeat for the Basques. Mr Ibarretxe criticised the parties for coming to the debate with their minds made up.