Spanish leaders clash over ETA and immigration

By Elisabeth O'Leary

MADRID, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and conservative opposition leader Mariano Rajoy accused each other in an election TV debate on Monday of lying to voters over policy on ETA guerrillas and immigration.

Early surveys by television channels said Zapatero, whose Socialists lead by about five percentage points in opinion polls ahead of the March 9 election, had won the first live TV debate for 15 years between a prime minister and opposition leader.

The ruling Socialists led a peace process with ETA that failed when two people were killed in a bomb attack at Madrid airport in late 2006. Rajoy's People's Party accused Zapatero of being soft over the Basque separatist guerrillas.

"You have lied and duped all of Spain's people," Rajoy, whose party argues Zapatero should never have opened the door to talks with ETA, said in the televised duel with Zapatero.

"(By negotiating with ETA) you acted frivolously, benefiting the terrorists and damaging the rest of us ... that is the most significant failure of this legislature," said Rajoy.

ETA guerrillas have killed more than 800 people in their campaign for independence in the Basque region.

Rajoy has also sought to make immigration a major issue for the first time in a Spanish election, calling for restrictions on the Islamic veil and proposing a visa system that would make it more difficult for Muslims to come to Spain.

Zapatero said Rajoy was being alarmist and stirring up trouble with his campaign issues.

"For me it is immoral to use terrorism (as an issue) for political purposes ... and your party has done nothing but use it, both on the street and in parliament," he said.



TRAIN BOMBINGS

Zapatero won power in 2004 because of widespread indignation that the then People's Party government falsely blamed ETA for bomb attacks on Madrid trains in which 191 people were killed.

The government's charge was undermined when al Qaeda claimed responsibility, and Islamists were subsequently arrested, charged and imprisoned.

"You are the ones who have lied. You lied about (the Madrid train bombings), trying to create a conspiracy, a worthless fabrication," said Zapatero.

The Socialists' lead in opinion polls is unlikely to be enough to muster an absolute majority in parliament.

In the past four years a construction boom helped power the average Spaniard's purchasing power past that of Italians, but it was was built on debt and the global credit crunch has now paralysed the property market.

This has been a heavy blow to ordinary Spaniards, whose real wages have not risen for 10 years while the bonanza proceeds have gone mainly to companies.

Spanish unemployment rose to 8.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, Eurostat data showed, and economists expect it to rise above 9 percent this year.

Many Spaniards, particularly Catholic conservatives, are concerned about Muslim assertiveness, especially now immigration has given the country a significant Muslim population -- about one million -- for the first time in 400 years.

"You are not interested in talking about immigration, but I am ... for example, about the fact that 34 percent of prisoners in jail are foreign," Rajoy said in the debate.

"We have to establish some order and control and your party does not want to," he said.

Zapatero said: "Spain was once a country of emigrants ... We have to be very careful with people who come to work with us."

A second live television debate is due next Monday. (Additional reporting by Raquel Castillo)

(Editing by Ralph Gowling)