SPAIN: VOTERS SAY 'S

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The volatile issues of regionalism must also be resolved. "This is another world up here," says a lawyer in San Sebastian, the government's old summer capital in the heart of the Basque country. "The fascist occupation has not ended. The police and the Civil Guard are divorced from the people. It is a situation of hate." Franco never forgave the Basques and the Catalans for fighting against him during the civil war. As a result, political repression was heavy.

The repression spawned the ETA (Euz-kadi ta Azkatusuna—Basque Homeland and Liberty) a separatist resistance organization, which among other acts of violence killed Franco's first Premier, Adm>al Luis Carrerro Blanco in 1973.

Basques are the most adamant in demanding regional autonomy (akin to U.S. states' rights). But these sentiments are echoed in Catalonia and to a lesser degree in Galicia, Andalusia and the Canary Islands. There is widespread support for the right of these areas to make their own basic decisions on education, public works and taxes.

Although post-Franco Spain is eager for closer relations with Western Europe, joining NATO is not an immediate prospect. Membership, in any case, will not affect a Washington-Madrid defense cooperation pact, which runs until 1981. Washington already has a warm relationship with Suarez. There was also admiration for Spain's progress in Britain last week. "The secret of Juan Carlos' success," reflected one Spain watcher, "was his rejection of the old men of the civil war and the middle-aged leaders of the Opus Dei [the secretive Catholic lay organization] in favor of his own generation of Spaniards."

With profound pride Spanish newspapers hailed the election as a "triumph of moderation" and praised the orderly way in which it was conducted. At week's end, after most of the votes were finally tallied, a Madrid intellectual expressed the emotions of his countrymen. "There is," he said, "deep down, a happiness about this transition, about the possibility of taking political consensus in hand. Now our people have got to decide to live together and to disagree in a civilized way."

"Spain will surprise you. " —Premier Adolfo Suárez.

August 1976