About 400 people protested in Bilbao on Saturday for freedom of expression and independence after the government decided not to legalise the political wing of Basque separatist movement ETA after it called a ceasefire, according to Reuters. The march through the northern city, seen in video images posted on Spain's main newspaper websites, was outlawed earlier in the day, but some still managed to follow a route through Bilbao watched closely by Basque police. ETA announced a ceasefire last Sunday, widely dismissed by the government and opposition parties as the armed group has broken truces in the past. Some analysts said Batasuna, the political wing of ETA, wants to return to legal politics before municipal elections in 2011. On Friday, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero reiterated that Batasuna must condemn violence and ETA before it could become a legal political party. Despite that, two protest marches were arranged by separate political platforms that courts said were linked to Batasuna. Both were declared illegal and called off by the organisers, but went ahead regardless. ETA has killed more than 850 people in its attempt to carve out an independent state in northern Spain and southwest France, but has recently been crippled by arrests of its members and a rise in support among Basques for a democratic solution to the independence movement.
