WRAP Funeral of murdered politician in Basque region

Описание: (8 Mar 2008)
1. Tilt-down from town hall to crowd holding flowers for funeral procession of murdered politician, Isaias Carrasco
2. Mid of people holding wreath
3. Women holding wreath
4. Mid of masked security
5. Mid of armed security
6. Mid of tribute banner to Carrasco
7. Various of funeral procession
8. Cutaway of cameras
9. Crowd walking in funeral procession
10. Crowd processing past holding wreaths and flowers
11. Wide of coffin being carried
12. Pan of men walking past carrying coffin
13. Wide of crowd and town hall
14. Various of crowd in procession
STORYLINE:
Spaniards gathered on Saturday for the funeral of a small-town Socialist politician killed a day earlier by a suspected Basque separatist.
Isaias Carrasco, a former Socialist town councillor in Mondragon, was shot three times in his car on Friday as he prepared to go to his job as a clerk in a highway toll booth.
A large crowd of people, some holding wreaths, gathered at the town hall in Mondragon for Carrasco's funeral procession, which followed a wake for the 42-year-old father of three.
Carrasco was a well-known, popular figure in his working-class neighbourhood of Mondragon.
He coached a children's soccer team and dabbled in construction work, according to local newspapers.
He served on the town council from 2003-2007 and was one of just a handful of non-nationalist members in a town where pro-independence sentiment is fierce.
Then, he had a bodyguard.
But Carrasco failed to win re-election last year, and turned down an offer to keep the bodyguard.
Like many Basque towns, it has two names: Mondragon in Spanish and Arrasate in the Basque language.
The town is heavily pro-Basque independence and is run by a party that judges say is linked to ETA's outlawed political wing, Batasuna.
Observers are now questioning the effect, if any, Friday's killing would have on Sunday's Spanish general election.
The attack could create sympathy benefiting Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, or a backlash against him for having negotiated in vain with ETA while conservatives wanted to defeat the militant group with police measures.
Until Friday's shooting in broad daylight in the Basque industrial town, Zapatero's party had a four-percentage-point lead over the conservative Popular Party in three polls released last weekend and on Monday - the last day such surveys could be published.
The shooting prompted Spain's political parties to call off the remainder of their rallies leading up to Friday midnight, when the campaign was to come to an official end.
In Spain rallies are banned the day before an election.
ETA declared what it called a permanent cease-fire in March 2006 and said it wanted a negotiated settlement to a conflict in which it has killed more than 800 people.
But the group - classified as a "terror organisation" by Spain, the European Union and the United States - grew frustrated with a lack of concessions in ensuing peace talks with Zapatero's government.
It formally called off the truce in June 2007.

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