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The president of the Basque Popular Party, Antonio Basagoiti, affirmed on Wednesday that now it is not time for focusing debate on ETA’s prisoners and the prison policy, but for taking measures to “consolidate” peace definitively.

Basagoiti met on Wednesday with Basque lehendakari, Patxi López, within the different meetings López began on Monday with Iñigo Urkullu, president of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), in order to analyse the new situation after ETA announced its definitive cessation of armed activity.

Antonio Basagoiti offered a press conference after his meeting with López to repeat that ETA’s decission of stopping armed activity was good news, but he also emphasized that it should be clear that this decission was not made because “someone in ETA had turned good, but it is a victory of democracy”.

He also pointed out that parties should work to “gain more spaces of freedom” and not to “put the cart before the horse, going along with Batasuna about the debate on prisoners or independece.”

Basagoiti suggested the lehendakari to call a conference or a “great congress” focused on freedom, democracy and the principles of plurality.