Terrorism tops list of public concerns

For the first time since 1986, when the first government survey on the concerns of the general public was carried out across Spain, 70 percent of people questioned believe that ETA terrorism is Spain's biggest problem at the moment. This latest wave of domestic terrorism is unnerving the general public, for example in the Balearics, travel agents are finding that group trips to mainland cities are being cancelled. For the past 14 years, according to the government, the biggest concern has been unemployment. Although 41 percent still believe that unemployment has the biggest personal effect, followed by 23 percent which says it is terrorism. At the bottom of the list of concerns is crime. 64 percent are still worried about unemployment, but more are concerned about drug and alcohol abuse than economic problems and only 14 percent are concerned about the rising fuel prices. It is terrorism which is dominating the public agenda. Over the past year, nearly every region of Spain has been affected, directly or indirectly by domestic terrorism. Last month it was revealed that ETA had planned a car bomb in the Balearics, either on one of the ferries or in Majorca or Ibiza and politicians were forced to admit that everybody is a target. Security at all the local government and council buildings across the Balearics has been stepped up as concern mounts during this latest wave of bombings and assassinations. The figures and report released by the government yesterday were collated in September, and the percentage of the country worried about terrorism will have only risen since then. One of the reasons that less people are worried about economic problems is that 30 percent of the country believes that the economy is in good shape, only 18 percent claim the economy is in a poor or very poor condition. 42 percent of the population have a mobile telephone and 87 percent are up to date on latest developments such as mobiles being connected to the Internet.