Death in the North

Not since Francisco Franco's death last November had the new regime of King Juan Carlos faced a grimmer spectacle of unrest than it did last week. The northern Basque province of Alava was in a vicious, rebellious mood. The provincial capital of Vitoria was completely shut down, and the industrial city's 180,000 inhabitants seethed with bitterness. Riot police sent in by the national government had shot dead three young demonstrators outside one of Vitoria's churches; at least 100 more citizens were wounded in the melee.

In unprecedented defiance of Madrid, Alava's provincial authorities declared themselves "profoundly disgusted by the government's acts." More than 30,000 people gathered for the slain men's funeral at the cathedral, where an angry priest thundered against the "brutal violence" of the police. While Vitoria mourned, workers in Bilbao, Pamplona and other Basque cities streamed off their jobs in sympathy, closing down hundreds of factories.

Years of Frustration. The fever of protest in Vitoria had been building for two months. Like workers all across Spain, the city's laborers gave vent to years of frustration after Franco's death. With the clergy's blessing, striking workers met in illegal assembly in the city's churches to air their demands for higher wages and their conviction that Madrid must yield more authority to local governments.

When some 5,000 workers descended on the big, modern church of San Francisco de Asis last week for just such a meeting, police ordered them to disperse. They refused, and riot squads began lobbing tear gas and smoke bombs near--some say into--the church. In panic and anger, the crowd spilled out of windows and doors. The police shot into the crowd with small arms and machine guns; they contend that the workers attacked them. As news of the dead and wounded spread through the city, hundreds of people rioted, tearing down traffic lights, breaking shop windows and building barricades.

The Vitoria crisis was just the newest of many problems besetting Juan Carlos. The four Basque provinces in Spain's north are home to an enduring separatist movement. Similar regional discontent is brewing in Catalonia, where demonstrations last month paralyzed Barcelona on two successive Sundays and hastened the King's planned visit to the area. Apart from regional dissidents, who complain that Juan Carlos is not reforming Spain fast enough, there is mounting pressure on the King from diehard right-wingers who protest that he is moving too fast. The King himself seems to prefer moderate gestures: last week, on the very day of the fatal confrontation in Vitoria, his government had sent a bill to the Cortes that would make political assemblies legal.

As the citizens of Vitoria carried the coffins of the slain through their streets last week, one mourner warned darkly, "We want to know who is responsible for these things. It is not enough to have some resignations." As if to underline the widespread anger, Basque leftists and separatists vowed to continue work stoppages this week. Juan Carlos will not find it easy to appease that anger and to keep at bay those who feel the need to reimpose the old days of order and discipline.

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