promoted officials who supported political reform and removed those commanders of the security forces (the and the ) who seemed to support preserving the Francoist regime. Suárez wanted to demonstrate to the army that the political normalization of the country meant neither anarchy nor revolution. In this, he counted on the cooperation of Santiago Carrillo, but he could in no way count on the cooperation of terrorist groups. Resurgence of terrorist activity The Basque Country remained, for the better part of this period, in a state of political turbulence. Suárez granted a multi-stage amnesty for numerous Basque political prisoners, but the confrontations continued between local police and protesters. The separatist group ETA, which in the middle of 1976 had seemed open to a limited truce after Franco's death, resumed armed confrontation again in October. The time from 1978 to 1980 would be ETA's three deadliest years ever. However, it was between December 1976 and January 1977 that a series of attacks brought about a situation of high tension in Spain. The Maoist GRAPO () began its armed struggle by bombing public locations, and then continued with the kidnapping of two important figures of the regime: the President of the Council of the State José María de Oriol, and General Villaescusa, President of the Superior Council of the Military Justice. From the right, during these kidnappings, members of the neo-fascist conducted the Atocha massacre, three of them labor lawyers, in an office on Atocha Street in Madrid, in January 1977. In the midst of these provocations, Suárez convened his first meeting with a significant number of opposition leaders, who published a condemnation of terrorism and gave their support to Suárez's actions. During this turbulent time, the capitalized on the instability and declared that the country was on the brink of chaos. Despite the increased violence by the ETA and GRAPO, elections for the Constituent Cortes were carried out in June 1977. First elections and the draft of the Constitution The elections held on 15 June 1977 confirmed the existence of four important political forces, at the national level. The votes broke down in the following manner: Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD, Unión de Centro Democrático): 34.61% Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE, Partido Socialista Obrero Español): 29.27% Communist Party of Spain (PCE, Partido Comunista de España): 9.38% People's Alliance (AP, Alianza Popular): 8.33% With the success of the Basque Nationalist Party