Politically moderate Basque leaders have said that outlawing Batasuna will not lead to peace in the troubled Basque region.
Mr Aznar particularly wants people who live in the Basque country but are not Basque nationalists to vote next month.
And its university press has a large series on Basque topics, including the writings of the celebrated Basque-American author Robert Laxalt.
Elections in the Basque region of Spain resulted in gains for the country's ruling centre-right party and for radical Basque nationalists.
On August 27th, the Basque regional police began to implement a legal order to shut down Batasuna offices throughout the Basque country.
ECONOMIST: A ban on Batasuna will not be the end of the terror story
Until the mood in the Basque country turned sour last December, he had managed to get along, though not warmly, with the mainstream (non-violent) Basque nationalists.
Basque peace could be a pay-off for Mr Zapatero's softly-softly approach to Spain's most enduring political problem: regional tensions in the Basque country and in Catalonia.
ECONOMIST: Reasons for caution over ETA's ceasefire declaration
Basque nationalists trace the roots of the homeland to pre-Roman times and many dream of reuniting all seven historic Basque provinces, three of which are in France.
It is hoping to oust the moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) from the Basque parliament, and is even considering a pact with the Socialists to achieve this.
For Catalan, read Galician or Basque or whatever: when the Basque government was recently renegotiating its financial accord with the centre, a similar demand almost killed the deal.
There the Basque government is heavily promoting Euskera, the Basque tongue, which is less widely spoken in the region than Catalan is in Catalonia (and is harder for Spanish-speakers to learn).
Last month, ETA appeared to suffer a further setback when the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which advocates independence from Spain through peaceful means, won 33 seats in the 75-member parliament in Basque regional elections.
Meanwhile, since the Basque Nationalists are no longer co-operating with Herri Batasuna in the Basque parliament, they are now a minority government which could, at any time, fall to a vote of no confidence.
The leader of the Spanish opposition party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), Joaquin Almunia, rejected ETA's claim that it was resuming the armed struggle because the other Basque parties had failed to rally to its call for pan-Basque elections.
Mr Zapatero's troubles began in late December when the Basque assembly voted for the Ibarretxe plan, which seeks to introduce Basque citizenship, an independent judiciary, a penal system, devolved responsibility for social security and the power to sign international treaties.
Over the weekend two Spanish regions, Galicia and the Basque country, are set to hold elections.
FORBES: METALS OUTLOOK: Gold's Weakness Could Continue Next Week
The attack happened less than three weeks before regional elections in the Basque Country.
As a result, public spending per person in the Basque country is the highest in Spain.
On the trickiest regional issue, Basque separatism, he has played the card of national unity.
Batasuna got 140, 000 votes, 10 percent of the total vote, in Basque regional elections in 2001.
Basque country is the reverse melting pot--let's all be together, work together, but let's not melt.
Nor will his party's sensational Basque success make Mr Zapatero's position in Madrid much easier.
The Basque president, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, believes this would be detrimental to any future peace process.
The Basque Country and Navarra collect their own taxes and pay the centre for services rendered.
CNN's Al Goodman said the bomb was intended to send a message to the Basque parliament.
Actually, Mr Aznar gets along better with the Basque Nationalists than their angry words suggest.
Moreover, the program was able to recognise the singularity of languages such as Basque and Maltese.
One of Spain's most serious domestic issues has been tension in the northern Basque region.
Three Basque parties, including Herri Batasuna, now hold 41 of the assembly's 75 seats.
The University of Nevada in Reno is home to the nation's only Basque studies department.
应用推荐