Dozens of towns and most major Spanish cities came to a standstill at noon yesterday as tens of thousands of citizens answered a call to stage silent protests to show their rejection of the latest terrorist attacks by the Basque separatist movement, ETA.
Three attacks in five days have cost the life of one local politician in Malaga, caused enormous damage to Madrid's commercial centre and blasted a Civil Guard barracks and injured the wife of a guard in the small town of Agreda, some 270 km north of Madrid.
The largest and most emotional demonstration was held on the steps of the city hall in Malaga.
The protest was particularly poignant as less than 24 hours before, the coffin of Mr Jose Maria Martin Carpena, the Popular Party councillor gunned down by ETA on Saturday, had been carried down the same steps by his colleagues for burial.
"We want to show ETA that we reject their violence and to offer our support to Jose Maria's family. We are the millions who want peace, liberty and democracy, and we are the majority," he said.
The killing of the local politician highlights the fact that ETA has targeted the party and its local politicians to pressure the government into giving in to its demands for the return of all ETA prisoners serving sentences across Spain to jails nearer their homes and families, and for an eventual independent Basque State.
What was once hailed as a triumph for the PP when it won almost 25,000 seats on town and city councils across Spain has now become a burden. Many of those 25,000 men and women, some of them only part-time politicians, have appeared on ETA's hit lists.
Also, like Mr in Carpena, many are from places far removed from the Basque Country and with no apparent connection with the region.
Although his name had appeared on one of those lists, he was not considered a prime target. "His name, like so many others, was found in papers seized from ETA's Andalucia commando. But the list is so long that it would be virtually impossible to provide security for every person on it," said Mr Jaime Mayor Oreja, the Interior Minister.
Other more vociferous demonstrations against ETA were held yesterday in Madrid and cities in the Basque Country. A mass demonstration, originally convened by all the major political parties to protest at the Madrid bombing but with an added incentive after the two other attacks, is scheduled to take place tonight. Tens of thousands of Madrid's citizens are expected to assemble in the central Plaza Cibeles to show their rejection of ETA's latest offensive once more.
The recent increase in ETA attacks, culminating in the murder of Mr Carpena, brought harsh words from French Interior Minister Mr Jean-Pierre Chevenement, who called the attacks "barbaric".
Though ETA has never attacked in France, the French Basque country on the border with Spain has reportedly been used to set up safe houses and arms caches.
The car used for the bomb that exploded in Agreda on Sunday was stolen in Nontron, south-west France, French police said.
Last September, ETA stole eight tonnes of explosives from a munitions warehouse in the northern French province of Brittany with the help of Breton separatists.
ETA, which stands for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Homeland and Liberty - was set up in 1968 to fight for the independence of the Basque region, and has killed nearly 800 civilians and military personnel in its 32-year history.