WESTERN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00865A002300170001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 22, 2005
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 8, 1975
• Content Type: NOTES

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Police Crackdown in Spain Plays Into Hands
of Communists and Ultra-Rightists . . . . . . . 1
UK Still Plans Import Controls. . . . . . . . . . 3
Portuguese Party Eases Stand on Communists
in Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Nazi Hunter Drops Charges Against
Austrian Chancellor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Iceland to Raise Fisheries Dispute at
NATO Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . .
DOS review(s) completed.
December 8, 1975
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Police Crackdown in Spain Plays Into Hands of
Communists and Ultra-Rightists
The police crackdown on opposition demonstrations
over the weekend will strengthen the hand of those who
seek to discredit King Juan Carlos' attempts to open
up the Spanish political system.
The Spanish Communist Party, which appears to have
taken the lead in organizing the demonstrations, will
claim that the use of force and the arrests show that
nothing has changed in Spain. The far right will point
to the violence as an example of the dangers of liberali-
zation and call for further government crackdowns. The
main losers are the forces in the middle--liberal-minded
members of the establishment and the non-Communist
opposition who favor gradual liberalization of the
regime.
Police used strong measures yesterday to disperse
some 4,QO0-5,000 demonstrators gathering near Madrid's
Carabanchel prison to demand total amnesty for the
many political prisoners not freed by the King's recent
limited pardon. Some 200 persons reportedly were seized,
but more than 100 were released.
Among those arrested was the Communist labor leader
Marcelino Camacho, who was freed a week ago under terms
of the King's pardon. Although Camacho did not take
part in the demonstration, the police contend that he
was involved in planning it. They say he recently
incited Madrid University students to join in the
demonstration and yesterday gave instructions and
coordinated activities of the groups trying to demon-
strate.
December 8, 1975
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Camacho has, in fact, been inviting rearrest--
probably at the behest of the Communist Party. Shortly
after his release he gave defiant press conferences
strongly attacking the government and Juan Carlos and
for the past week he has harangued various protest
meetings. Nevertheless, his rearrest will doubtless
reactivate West European leftists' protests against
the Spanish regime.
The police also broke up a demonstration of
several hundred persons--including Camacho--who
gathered on Friday at a Madrid railway station to
welcome home a dissident priest, Father Francisco
Garcia Salve, who had also been released from jail
by the King's pardon.
The priest and 26 other persons were arrested.
The-police charge that this demonstration also was
planned by Communists. The rearrest of Father Garcia
Salve is likely to cause some discomfort to the Church
which has of late been outspoken in its support of
liberalizing the regime.
The Communist-dominated Democratic Junta on
Saturday called for a week of "national democratic
action," beginning Wednesday, to protest the King's
decision to retain Prime Minister Arias. A junta
spokesman admitted that the other main opposition
coalition, the Socialist-led Platform of Democratic
Convergence, had decided against endorsing the appeal,
although some of its members may join in.
The demonstrations will arouse concern on the
right and make it more difficult for Arias to bring
men favoring political liberalization into the new
cabinet he is forming.
December 8, 1975
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UK Still Plans Import Controls
The British government will apparently
go ahead with plans for selective import controls.
The final decision on the extent of the controls
may have been held up, however, because of negative
international reactions.
Michael Foot, secretary of state for employment
in the Labor government, told Western diplomats
recently that he supports the import controls,
and that the government will probably announce
them before the end of the month.
Foot indicated that selective controls
would be part of a "Christmas package" of measures
intended to increase employment. The package
will probably include subsidies designed to
create new jobs for young workers, and retraining
schemes.
Although unemployment is not expected to
peak until next year, the government may believe
that the package would in part offset the end
of Chrysler's operations in the UK. Foot declined
to comment on the status of negotiations with
Chrysler, but did say that a complete shutdown
would affect the jobs, directly or indirectly,
of 50,000 workers.
Foot's deputy indicated that the primary
target of the import controls would be textiles
from Hong Kong and Taiwan and clothing from
Eastern Europe. Second and third priority targets
would be television tubes and automobiles from
Japan. Such priorities suggest that the British
government wishes to avoid quarrels with its
Common Market partners or the US.
December 8, 1975
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Foot said that the government had warned
the West Europeans of thy possibility of controls,
and expected no hostile reaction from that quarter.
Several Common Market countries--West Germany,
most recently--have, however, told the British
that they oppose selective controls. The subject
was not on the agenda of the EC summit meeting
in Rome, but it may have been discussed informally.
Foot justifies his support of import controls
on the grounds that they are necessary to save
jobs and retain vital trade union support for
the Wilson government. He believes that the
most. difficult periods for the government will
be when unemployment peaks and during next summer,
when the unions decide how to react to the second
phase of Wilson's anti-inflation program.
December 8, 1975
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Portuguese Party Eases Stand on Communists in Government
Portugal's centrist Popular Democratic Party has
dropped its inflexible stand against Communist partici-
pation in the government, averting a showdown over the
issue.
At a national congress held over the weekend,
Popular Democratic delegates voted to allow the party
to continue to participate with the Communists in the
present government under certain conditions.
Many of the conditions either have already been
met or could be met by the government without extreme
difficulty.
Popular Democratic leaders, after extensive
debate, backed away from a conflict with the Antunes
faction and the Socialists over the Communist issue.
The final resolution may have been a compromise to
avoid splitting the conservative and leftist wings of
the party. Party Secretary General Francisco Sa
Carneiro had been calling for the ouster of the
Communists for weeks because of their efforts to under-
mine the government.
Such calls intensified in the wake of the November
25-26 military rebellion, which both the Popular
Democrats and the Socialists blamed on the Communists.
Communist Party leader Alvaro Cunhal, meanwhile,
told 20,000 supporters in Lisbon yesterday that the
party had not withdrawn from the government because
that would only strengthen the right. He said a new
threat from the right must now be overcome by changing
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the policies of the Socialists and the ruling faction
in the Armed Forces Movement.
Cunhal told the Communist rally--the first since
the rebellion--that the rebellion had been "disastrous,"
and he placed the blame on the far left. He said a
bloody rout of the workers had been narrowly avoided
when the Communist Party failed to support the uprising.
December 8, 1975
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Nazi Hunter Drops Charges Against Austrian
Chancellor
Jewish Documentation Center chief Simon Wiesenthal
dropped his slander charge against Chancellor Bruno
Kreisky last week, presumably because the case might
have been tried by a parliamentary committee rather
than a court of law.
The judicial group that was to meet this week to
decide whether Kreisky's immunity would be lifted so
that he could engage in a civil litigation, had been
expected to rule against such action. The alternative,
which had been suggested by Kreisky, was to have the
dispute aired by a parliamentary committee. Since
the government has an absolute majority, the chances
were slim that Wiesenthal would have won his argument
against the Chancellor in such a forum.
Friedrich Peter, chairman of the Austrian Liberal
Party, will, however, press his slander suit against
Wiesenthal. It was Kreisky's defense of Peter--
accused of participation in atrocities committed by
an SS unit in which he was a member--that started the
whole affair. Although Peter still seems confident that
he can prove his innocence, the continuing publicity
reflecting his association with the SS will be damaging.
Nevertheless, Peter won the endorsement of his party's
executive board and will enter court with its full
support.
Peter also will press suits against two newspaper
editors who published the accusations made by
Wiesenthal. Chancellor Kreisky, still supporting
Peter, also will sue a magazine for its coverage of
the story. The four suits were filed in the Vienna
December 8, 1975
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court last week, but none of the principals was pres-
ent. Wiesenthal's decision the day before to drop his
charges against Kreisky probably caused some confusion
among the litigants. Peter still could have second
thoughts and, like Wiesenthal, eventually back away
from further publicity over the issue.
The only real casualty so far is right-winger Otto
Scrinzi, one of Peter's deputies. Scrinzi had earlier
given an interview to an Austrian magazine in which
he indicated that Peter might resign as party chair-
man to best serve the party's interests. Peter up-
braided Scrinzi before the executive board for the inter-
view and the board stripped Scrinzi of all party posts,
leaving him only his seat in parliament.
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Iceland to Raise Fisheries Dispute at NATO
Meeting
Iceland intends to raise its fishing dispute
with the UK at the NATO foreign ministers' meeting
in Brussels later this week. The cabinet, at the
same time, decided to defer raising the issue at the
UN General Assembly, pending the outcome of the
NATO meeting.
Prime Minister Hallgrimsson told the US ambas-
sador on December 5 that the opportunity to air
Iceland's grievances had been "the only real argument"
deflecting pressures in the cabinet earlier last week
to boycott the Brussels meeting.
Hallgrimsson did not indicate what steps by NATO
would satisfy the Icelandic government. The ambas-
sador gained the impression, however, that Hallgrimsson
would settle for expressions of concern by the other
foreign ministers over the dispute between the two
alliance partners, and Secretary General Luns' offer
to mediate.
Icelandic officials point out the government is
under domestic pressure to take its case to the UN.
Although deferring an approach to the General Assembly,
Hallgrimsson said Reykjavik is contemplating sending
"some sort of communication" to the Security Council.
He did not indicate whether this would occur before
the NATO meeting.
The cabinet's decision to defer action in the
General Assembly is contingent upon there being no
escalation in the cod war. On December 5, a British
tug rammed an Icelandic coast guard patrol, the first
such incident in the current dispute. Although this
incident will increase tension in Iceland once it is
December 8, 1975
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publicized, the absence of bodily injury should
enable government leaders to hold the line on their
current strategy.
In London, a foreign office official expressed
hope that Foreign Secretary Callaghan would be able
to agree with Foreign Minister Agustsson in Brussels
to reopen the negotiations on a fishing agreement
that broke off last month. He said that Britain
is willing to withdraw its frigates from Icelandic
waters if Reykjavik refrains from harassing British
trawlers during negotiations. Iceland has adamantly
rejected this offer from the beginning of the dispute.
December 8, 1975
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