Mr Aznar may now try to set up a rival front of parties in the Basque country, made up of his own conservative People's Party and the Socialists, who both want to keep Spain's existing constitution, with its strong measure of regional self-government but with no option for independence.

ECONOMIST: Spain and the Basques

"It's still sort of a Band-Aid, stopgap measure, to keep state regulators at bay until they can come up with a new framework, " agrees Passmore.

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