Explaining the Inexplicable

The hardest thing to understand for observers of Spanish elections — including most Spaniards — is how a party that is the political face of one of the bloodiest terrorist groups Europe has known can consistently attract around 15% of the vote in regional elections. A masterful new book by Irish journalist Paddy Woodworth helps to explain this conundrum, why it is that so many presumably sane electors in the northern Basque region have kept putting their X next to the candidates of the extreme nationalist party Euskal Herritarrok or its predecessor Herri Batasuna.

Dirty War, Clean Hands...