A member of the Spanish para-Olympic basketball ball team which won the gold at the recent games in Sydney, the journalist Carlos Ribagorda, has denounced in a magazine article published today that non disabled athletes formed part of the Spanish team. The claim alleges irregularities in at least four sports - basketball, table tennis, athletics and swimming. The article claims that the fraud was initially carried out to obtain more sports funding. The federation for disable athletes in Spain has denied the allegations. All the papers lead of course with the massive demonstration seen in Barcelona last night - as many as a million people according to some sources.
Photos abound, but so too do explications about what the demonstrators really want.
That it was a demonstration against ETA and in favour of peace is clear, but how that peace can be obtained is far more complicated. The problem in centred really on the many calls made last night for dialogue, especially one made by the journalist Gemma Nierga. It goes against the PP government s position with the PNV Basque Nationalist Party - demanding that the PNV break off all relations with ETA s political wing. The Periodico de Catalu ia supports these calls for dialogue and calls last night s demonstration a step forward. El Mundo however things that party politics have been drawn into the demonstration - where there is no place for them.