THE PRESIDENT of the Basque Parliament officially put the secessionist plan to the Parliament in Madrid today:

In talks with president of the national parliament, Manuel
Marin, he also proposed setting up a joint committee of deputies from the Basque country and Madrid to study the plan before its expected rejection by the Madrid parliament in March.

Marin firmly rejected the offer, Atuxta told a news conference.

"The Basque people will never understand that this project is rejected without first being being thoroughly examined," he said.

"We want to negotiate, we want to talk and we certainly do want to pressure."

In a plan approved with the support of the political arm of ETA, saying "we do want to pressure" is certainly something to make you think.

This afternoon there's been a meeting between Zapatero and Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the main opposition party, the PP. There was just a press conference that I didn't have the chance to listen in full, but there's some signs that they will enter into some kind of understanding: Rajoy offered to give his support to Zapatero's decision to counter the plan.