Santa Cruz de Tenerife. During the second day of the State of the Nation debate, the President of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, saw a hard dose of reality.  

     Referring to Wednesday row with the leader of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, Zapatero has admitted that the new pact against terrorism is out of the question. However, other parties have been supporting the Socialist government in their posture towards dialogue with ETA's political wing, a dialogue which both sides insist has not yet taken place. Gaspar Llamazares, leader of the left wing coalition IU, gave the government his party's support for their anti-terrorism strategy, but at the same time called on all parties to join in such a pact. 

       An opinion poll carried out by the Sigma Dos organisation shows that 45.9% of the Spaniards who followed the debate consider Zapatero to have won the arguments, while only 29.3% give the victory to Rajoy. One thing is for certain: the debate has served to distance the two main parties even further, especially in policy on how to deal with ETA and terrorism. 

      While another ETA activist has been detained by National Police in Bilbao. Iñaki Herrán Bilbao was wanted by the National Court in Spain on charges dating back some ten years. He had obviously forgotten about them, because he was detained when he went to renew his identity card.