San Sebastian is - together with Wrocław - a European Cultural Capital for 2016. But there has been resentment about that selection in the rest of Spain outside the Basque region. Critics allege that political motives, not cultural ones, decided the nomination.Over the years, San Sebastian has witnessed countless bloody terrorist attacks by ETA. This January the Basque separatists announced an indefinite cease-fire. The city authorities responded by stressing the need for peace, tolerance and reconciliation. But in a move that has inflamed tensions, the new mayor of San Sebastian had a portrait of King Juan Carlos removed from inside city hall.
