Eta, the violent Basque separatist group, announced a ceasefire in the autonomous Spanish region in March this year after 40 years of bloodshed. Although it was not the first such declaration, it was greeted with more optimism than usual.

A concerted crackdown by security forces in Spain and France has severely weakened the group, while public outrage at the 2004 train bombings by Islamic extremists in Madrid helped erode much remaining sympathy with the group’s fight for an independent Basque state.