MADRID The recent cease-fire by the Basque separatist group ETA has raised unprecedented hopes for peace in the Basque country but has also led to an eruption of regional nationalism, often viewed by both the left and the right as a threat to Spanish unity. The result of Basque regional elections on October 25 in reality a referendum on the right to self-determination will be closely watched across the country.

The expected victory for nationalist parties would give added punch to Basque separatist demands and trigger similar calls in Catalonia, Galicia and other areas of Spain which currently enjoy various degrees of autonomy. Since the ETA truce announced in mid-September, the nationalists, including the moderates, have pushed to have the Spanish constitution recognize the region's right to self-determination. The Basque people do not have their place in the constitution, and the nationalists will not accept it as long as it does not respect the Basques' wish to decide their future themselves, warned Xabier Arzalluz, head of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) which governs the region and is credited with obtaining the ETA cease-fire.

As a result, Catalan nationalists have also stepped up their campaign. Envious of the freer status already accorded to the Basques, the Catalans of northeastern Spain hope to benefit from any gains made by their neighbors in their peace talks with Madrid. Catalonia is a wholly separate nation and should therefore be granted the right to self-determination, the head of the autonomous Catalan government, Jordi Pujol, said earlier this week.

Pujol did not hesitate to speak of a referendum on future independence, though he admitted the separatists would not win it today. Spain's three large nationalist parties Basque, Catalan and Galician decided for the first time this summer to create a joint front to step up the pressure on Madrid. They signed the Barcelona Declaration, which calls for the recognition of Spain's multinational character and hopes to see the country become a confederation of states.

The parties called on Spain's numerous nationalist and regionalist parties to join their campaign. And a nationalist summit was recently held in Madrid, uniting Basques and Catalans as well as Canary Islanders, Andalusians, Valencians, Aragonese and Majorcans, among others. This nationalistic fever has concerned Spain's opposition socialists, who have launched a campaign to defend the democratic constitution which celebrates its 20th anniversary in December. The drifting nationalist protest poses a real threat of disintegration to Spain, while the country is already one of the most decentralized in the Western world today, Socialist candidate Josep Borrell said.

Concessions to the Basque nationalists could lead to a social revolt much more dramatic than the (Basque) terrorism, in other regions that would feel marginalized, according to Estremadura's Socialist leader Juan Carlos Rodriguez Ibarra. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservative government shares the same concerns. But its official stance is softer than the Socialists it has to be because it took power in May 1996 with the support of the Catalan and Basque nationalists.

We will not touch the constitution, which offers a framework for magnificent coexistence and has been able to resolve territorial conflicts at the source, with religion and land problems, of the civil war, one of Aznar's ministers said in private. (AFP)