Transition (1976–82)

This chapter explores London’s view of ETA and the “Basque problem” within the highly complex and contentious context of Spain’s transition to democracy. As ETA escalated its armed campaign and hunkered down for a protracted ‘Long War’ of attrition against the Spanish State, Madrid and London formed a joint counterterrorism front against their respective domestic adversaries, ETA and the IRA. As British documentation reveals, the prospect of advanced ETA-IRA cooperation caused considerable concern within Spanish security and ministerial circles, particularly in 1979. Although London ultimately deemed these fears largely unfounded, UK officials increasingly viewed ETA as a grave threat to political stability in Spain, primarily due to its role as an agent provocateur to rogue military officers and the Francoist hard-right “bunker”. Finally, piecing together London’s moral and political assessment of ETA, this chapter identifies a gradual discursive shift away from the violence-begets-violence frame that had previously characterised British interpretations.