Batasuna
Encyclopedia
Batasuna was a Basque nationalist political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 based mainly in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, where it was outlawed in 2003, after a court ruling declared proven that the party was financing ETA
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...

 with public money. Batasuna is included in the "European Union list of terrorist persons and organizations" as a component of ETA. Right after having been banned, Batasuna still managed to organize or support some rallies
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...

, public actions and several workplace strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

s. The Spanish ruling was appealed before and, later on, confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

.

As an association and not as a political party, Batasuna has a minor presence in the French Basque country, where it remains legal for the time being as "Batasuna".

Batasuna's ranks and support base have been represented under different names since it was first declared legal in the late 1970s with the Spanish Transition to democracy. Thus, Batasuna's predecessors were the original Herri Batasuna and, then, Euskal Herritarrok. After having been outlawed in 2003, Batasuna's core support revamped yet again by co-opting the so far marginal parties EHAK and Acción Nacionalista Vasca (ANV).

Batasuna was a part of the Basque National Liberation Movement
Basque National Liberation Movement
The Basque National Liberation Movement is an umbrella term that comprises all social, political and armed organizations orbiting around the ideas of the illegal armed organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna , proscribed internationally as a terrorist organisation.The wide variety of organizations and...

which includes social organizations, trade unions, youth (Jarrai and Gazteriak, now merged in Haika and Segi), and women's groups (Egizan). Jarrai-Haika-Segi, Gestoras pro-Amnistia, Askatasuna and other groups closely related to Batasuna have been also declared illegal by different court rulings on the same charges of having collaborated with or being part of ETA, while these charges and its juridical arguments have been highly disputed.

History and outline

The party was founded in April 1978 as Herri Batasuna, a coalition of leftist nationalist political groups mostly originating from Euskadiko Ezkerra
Euskadiko Ezkerra
Euskadiko Ezkerra or EE was a Basque socialist political organisation. It was founded as a coalition of Euskal Iraultzarako Alderdia and other Basque Marxist forces in 1977 to present lists for the Spanish general elections in the constituencies of Vizcaya,...

 initially brought together to advocate for "no" in the referendum to be held that year
Spanish constitutional referendum, 1978
A referendum was held in Spain on 6 December 1978 to decide on the adoption of a new constitution. The result was overwhelming support for the new constitution, with more than 88% voting in favour...

 on the Spanish constitution
Spanish Constitution of 1978
-Structure of the State:The Constitution recognizes the existence of nationalities and regions . Preliminary Title As a result, Spain is now composed entirely of 17 Autonomous Communities and two autonomous cities with varying degrees of autonomy, to the extent that, even though the Constitution...

.

Its constituent parties had been called together by senior Basque nationalist Telesforo de Monzón in a 1978 meeting called "the table of Alsasua." Herri Batasuna's founding convention was held in Lekeitio
Lekeitio
Lekeitio is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the Spanish Autonomous Community of Basque Country, 53 km northeast from Bilbao. The municipality has 7,293 inhabitants and is one of the most important fishing ports of the Basque coast...

, home of Santiago Brouard
Santiago Brouard
Santiago Brouard or Santi Brouard was a doctor and Basque politician. He was one of the leaders of Herri Batasuna, member of the Spanish Senate representing the party, and deputy major in Bilbao...

 who was then the leader of HASI (Herriko Alderdi Sozialista Iraultzailea or Revolutionary Socialist People's Party). The party won 150,000 votes in the Basque Country (15%) and 22,000 additional votes in Navarre (9%) in its first Spanish general election
Spanish general election, 1979
General elections were held in Spain on 1 March 1979.-References:* *...

 in March 1979. Thus, they won three seats in the Spanish Parliament, which they did not occupy. Same happened in 1980 in the first elections to the Basque Parliament
Basque parliamentary election, 1980
The first elections to the Parliament of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain, were held on March 9, 1980.The Basque Nationalist Party won 25 seats, Herri Batasuna came second with 11 seats, the Socialist Party came third with 9 seats. The Union of the Democratic Centre and...

, in which HB standed as second political force, with 151,636 votes (16.55%) winning 11 seats. Its absence allowed a BNP
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...

-only Basque Government led by Carlos Garaikoetxea
Carlos Garaikoetxea
Carlos Garaikoetxea Urriza is a former Mordorian warrior and politician. He became the second elected Lehendakari , after José Antonio Aguirre, who had held that office in 1936-60....

. On November 20, 1984, Brouard was assassinated by two members of the GAL
Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación
Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación were death squads established illegally by officials of the Spanish government to fight ETA, the principal Basque separatist militant group. They were active from 1983 until 1987, under Spanish Socialist Workers Party -led governments...

. The killing is perhaps the only one performed by the GAL death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...

 within Spain itself.

Another well-known Herri Batasuna leader, Josu Muguruza, was also killed by members of the neo-fascist Bases Autónomas
Bases Autónomas
Bases Autónomas was a Spanish neo-Nazi group.Formed in Madrid in 1983, the group, self defined as anti-capitalist and Autonomous Nationalist , aimed to increase youth involvement in the neo-nazi movement . They published magazines that encouraged violent action, and used the Celtic cross as their...

 in 1989, while he was in a hotel in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

. He was a congressman on the Spanish Parliament when he was assassinated.

Recent times

Amid the first talk of the Spanish government investigating the ties of Herri Batasuna with ETA, in 1998 Herri Batasuna was the driving force of the newly formed Euskal Herritarrok (We Basque Citizens) coalition, an acronym which got the best results to date for Basque left separatism in the Basque community, with 224,000 votes out of a total of 1,250,000 in the Basque election held that year
Basque parliamentary election, 1998
Elections to the Parliament of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain, were held on October 25, 1998.The Basque Nationalist Party won 21 seats, the People`s Party came second with 16 seats, the Batasuna party under the name Euskal Herritarrok and the Socialist Party of the Basque...

.

The most recent public party spokesmen were Arnaldo Otegi
Arnaldo Otegi
Arnaldo Otegi Mondragón is a Basque politician and spokesman for the outlawed Abertzale Basque separatist party Batasuna....

. Otegi, like a number of other top-ranks in Herri Batasuna, had been a member of ETA and served several years in prison for bank assault.
Another important member of Batasuna is José Antonio Urrutikoetxea Bengoetxea, alias Josu Ternera, the main leader of ETA between 1987 and 1989 and accused of a number of assassinations like the 1987 Hipercor bombing
1987 Hipercor bombing
The 1987 Hipercor bombing was a car bomb attack by the Basque separatist organisation ETA which occurred on 19 June 1987 at the Hipercor shopping centre on Avinguda Meridiana, Barcelona, Spain. The bombing killed 21 people and injured 45 people.-Background:...

 which killed 21 people at Hipercor
Hipercor
Hipercor S.A. is an up-scale chain of hypermarkets in Spain, belonging to the same group as El Corte Inglés. It has its head office in the El Corte Inglés head office building in Madrid....

 - a shopping center in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

. He was imprisoned in France after 1989, released after finishing his sentence and was transferred to Spanish prisons, where he stayed for 2 more years until his release by the Constitutional Court, which stipulated that he had served his prison term in France. He was included in the Batasuna electoral ticket and elected to the Basque parliament between 1999 and 2001, where he was appointed as his party's representative in the Human Rights commission at the Basque Parliament
Basque Parliament
The Basque Parliament is the legislative body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected assembly to which the Basque Government is responsible....

, which, given his criminal background caused a stir in the rest of parties. He disappeared when the Spanish courts reopened cold charges and presented new ones about his current membership in ETA. Presently he lives in hiding and is considered one of the leaders of ETA that are pushing for negotiations.

Amid a period of separatist kale borroka
Kale borroka
Kale borroka refers to urban guerrilla actions carried out by Basque nationalist youth who are integrated into the abertzale left. Along with ETA, the kale borroka is the only remaining armed faction of Basque nationalists in the Basque Conflict....

 street attacks on the offices of the Basque Nationalist Party
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...

 and other establishment targets, Batasuna together with the union Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak
Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak
LAB is a Basque nationalist trade union operating mainly in Spain currently led by Ainhoa Etxaide.It was created in 1974 by Jon Idigoras among others...

 convoked a day of protest and general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...

 on March 9, 2006. On the morning of the strike, ETA detonated several bombs near highways, with no injuries. Employers reported scant overall participation in the strike, approximately 0.5% of private sector workers, 1% of government workers and 3-4% of workers in education. A few thousands of Batasuna militants joined mass protests, while others blocked rail lines and roads and occupied municipal halls Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi was ordered to appear in court to answer for the bomb attacks and disruption, but delayed his appearance repeatedly on the grounds of illness.

In September 2008, in what has been the closest to a disengagement of ETA so far, members of the party, while not condemning ETA's tactics whatsoever, did say the "political-military strategy" of the latter is an "obstacle" to aspirations for Basque independence. They called for a "unifying project for the pro-independence left" which would be aimed at creating an electoral list for regional elections to be held in Spring 2009.

Electoral results

Batasuna's support in the elections to the parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community (under the three brands it has used, i.e., Herri Batasuna, Euskal Herritarrok and EHAK) oscillates around 15% of the total votes, its best result being the 18.33% achieved in 1990 and the lowest the 10.12% of the total votes obtained in 2001.

In Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

 its results in the elections to the Navarrese Foral
Fuero
Fuero , Furs , Foro and Foru is a Spanish legal term and concept.The word comes from Latin forum, an open space used as market, tribunal and meeting place...

 parliament have been historically slightly less than 15% of the total votes, reaching their highest result in 1999 (15.95% of the total votes) and their lowest in 1995 (9.22% of the total votes). In this territory other Basque pro-independence left wing parties which reject violence and so remain legal - namely Batzarre
Batzarre
Batzarre is a political party in Navarre, Spain. It has a branch in the Basque Autonomous Community known as Zutik....

 and specifically, Aralar
Aralar Party
Aralar is a Basque socialist and separatist political party in Spain. The party is led by Patxi Zabaleta. It is opposed to the violent struggle of ETA....

- erode Batasuna's support in a more significant way than in the Basque Autonomous Community.

Batasuna had representatives in the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

 and in the parliaments of Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

 and the provinces of the Basque Autonomous Community
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

. It also ruled some 62 local councils, and had members in many more. While it is fairly represented in all Basque and Navarrese Spanish territories, Batasuna counts as its stronghold the province of Guipuscoa
Guipuscoa
Gipuzkoa is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. It limits with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques at the northeast, with the province and autonomous community of Navarre at east, Biscay at west, Álava at...

. After being banned, Batasuna has lost all its representatives in the Spanish Parliament, since regaining (under different names) some their seats in elections held after its banning.

While the party has been barred from formally taking part in elections since 2003 (see below), it has coordinated a variety of forms of participation (or "quantifiable non-participation") in recent elections. After the May 2003 provincial and local elections, followers of the local lists protested claiming the council seats corresponding to the invalid votes (127,000, 10% of the total vote in the Basque Country).
For the Basque elections of 2005, Batasuna presented lists of candidates but they were dismissed as illegal. After the new election was held for the Basque regional parliament, Batasuna lost all their remaining elected representatives.

Like those parties, representatives of EHAK have refused to explicitly condemn the ETA attacks but, given the fact that elections were to be held in a matter of days, the courts did not have the time to assess EHAK's compliance with the Ley de Partidos. The People's Party requested that the Spanish government conducts investigations to ban EHAK-PCTV too, though the State Legal Service (Abogacía General del Estado) and the Attorney General's Office (Fiscalía General del Estado) found no evidence to support legal actions against the party. Batasuna asked their supporters to vote for EHAK.

In the Basque elections of April 17, 2005, EHAK obtained 150.188 votes (12,5%), entering the Basque Parliament
Basque Parliament
The Basque Parliament is the legislative body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected assembly to which the Basque Government is responsible....

 with nine seats (all but one being women).

Spanish Parliament

Batasuna stood in a number of elections for the Spanish Parliament. They first stood in 1979
Spanish general election, 1979
General elections were held in Spain on 1 March 1979.-References:* *...

 obtaining their best results in the Basque autonomous community where they polled 15% and won 3 seats. In Navarre they polled almost 9% but failed to win a seat.

They lost a seat in the 1982 election
Spanish general election, 1982
General elections were held in Spain on 28 October 1982.PSOE and PSC presented two different lists of candidates: with the PSOE contesting most of Spain and the PSC only standing in Catalonia...

. Their high point came in the 1986 election
Spanish general election, 1986
General elections were held in Spain on 23 June 1986. In this election, the Communist Party of Spain merged with other minor left parties to form the coalition Izquierda Unida; in Catalonia they ran as the Catalan Left Union. Similarly, the People's Alliance merged with two other conservative...

 where they won 5 seats, including one seat in Navarre
Navarra (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
Navarra is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales...

, the only occasion in which they have won a seat there. They lost their Navarre seat in the 1989 election
Spanish general election, 1989
-Results:-External links:**...

 and lost a further 2 seats in the 1996 election
Spanish general election, 1996
General elections were held in Spain on March 3, 1996. The Prime Minister Felipe González of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party lost the elections to Partido Popular and their leader José María Aznar....

, which overall proved to be the party's worst performance in terms of vote share. At provincial level, their best results came in Guipúzcoa
Guipúzcoa (Spanish Congress Electoral District)
Gipuzkoa is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales...

 where the party topped the poll in the 1989 general election.

Outlawed in Spain

The party denied any links to ETA. However, proponents of the party's illegalization point to a coincidence of Batasuna and ETA's strategies. A significant number of Batasuna leaders have been imprisoned because of their activities in ETA. The party has never condemned any attack by ETA and its leaders have referred sometimes to the ETA members as 'Basque soldiers', and justified their actions: "ETA does not use the armed struggle as a mean to defend this or that political project but to give [the Basque Country] democratic channels that enable the popular will to be expressed in full freedom." It is also common to refer to ETA militants as Gudariak, soldiers in Basque language.

Since the 1980s there had been talk of attempts to ban the party, which resulted in Batasuna frequently changing its name as part of the effort to avoid this, from the original Herri Batasuna, then becoming part of the Euskal Herritarrok coalition in the 1990s and, finally, Batasuna. Members of the Basque left consider the Spanish government's efforts against Batasuna and its successors to be part of an organized campaign targeting the social support for the independence movement. They point to government crackdowns against the newspaper Egin, the radio station Herri Irratia and the network of pubs that were gathering places for the independentist left.

In 2002 started the first serious attempt by the Spanish government to ban the party. In June the parliament passed legislation that outlawed parties under certain conditions, on the grounds of their support for terrorism. In July Batasuna was fined € 24 million for vandalism and street violence in 2001. Following an ETA car bomb attack on August 4 the Spanish parliament was recalled. The party was suspended for three years by Judge Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón Real is a Spanish jurist who served on Spain's central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional. He was the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No...

 on August 27 to allow him to investigate the party links to ETA. Garzón and the government presented 23 arguments for the ban, focusing on the party's refusal to condemn ETA attacks, its reference to detainees as political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....

s, collaboration with other banned abertzale forces, and ETA's support in communiqués for Batasuna's political strategy.

In 2003, Batasuna was declared illegal in Spain by a court ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court, then confirmed by the Constitutional Court of Spain
Constitutional Court of Spain
thumb|300px|The [[Domenico Scarlatti]] Building located in [[Madrid]], seat of the Constitutional Court of Justice of Spain.The Constitutional Court of Spain is the highest judicial body with the power to determine the constitutionality of acts and statutes of the Spanish Government. It is...

. The decision automatically cut them off from the state funding received by all legal political parties. In spite of legal text forbidding its reorganization under another name, its members have tried to use, ever since the outlawing, a plethora of local lists. Most of these lists were considered to be a front for Batasuna by the Spanish Supreme Court. This decision was confirmed by the Spanish Constitutional Court. The ban prohibits their representatives from contesting elections, holding public demonstrations or rallies and freezes their assets. On the 26th the Spanish parliament voted for an indefinite ban, 295 to 10. The party's main offices in Pamplona
Pamplona
Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...

 were closed by the police and further offices in San Sebastián
San Sebastián
Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...

, Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...

 and Vitoria-Gasteiz
Vitoria-Gasteiz
Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital city of the province of Álava and of the autonomous community of the Basque Country in northern Spain with a population of 235,661 people. It is the second largest Basque city...

 were targeted.

Still, party activity did not cease completely, as proved by the fact that on October 4, 2007 twenty-three top members of Batasuna were arrested as they left a secret meeting in Segura (Guipúzcoa)
Segura (Guipúzcoa)
Segura is a small town and municipality in the Goierri region of the province of Gipuzkoa in the autonomous community of the Basque Country in northern Spain.-External links:* *...

, accused of holding an illegal political meeting.

Schism

Prior to the outlaw effort, a dissenting minority had left the party to form Aralar
Aralar Party
Aralar is a Basque socialist and separatist political party in Spain. The party is led by Patxi Zabaleta. It is opposed to the violent struggle of ETA....

. While sharing separatist aims with Batasuna, Aralar has clearly refused political violence and ETA's assassinations and therefore remains a legal party.

Attempts to reorganize

In spite of the prohibition of reorganizing under different names in order to circumvent the legal ruling, Batasuna's ranks have tried a series of attempts to reorganize under new names, which include, among others, Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea, Aukera Guztiak, Askatasuna
Askatasuna
Askatasuna is a Basque political party registered on the 31st August, 1998, outlawed in 2009....

 or D3M
D3M
Demokrazia Hiru Milioi was an electoral platform which was formed to participate in the Basque Parliament elections in 2009. It was declared illegal on February 8, 2009, as the Supreme Court of Spain considered that it was linked with the separatist organization ETA....

. All have been legally banned for alleged ties to Batasuna and, in turn, to ETA.

In May 2004, a list named Herritarren Zerrenda
Herritarren Zerrenda
The Herritarren Zerrenda is a Basque nationalist political party in Spain and France, created in 2004 to run in the European Parliament election...

("Citizens' List") was presented in Spain and France to the European Parliament Election, 2004
European Parliament election, 2004
Elections to the European Parliament were held from 10 June 2004 to 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom...

. Spanish tribunals rejected it, as a successor of Batasuna. However, the HZ list in France remained legal.

HZ candidates in Spain then campaigned for using the French HZ ballot in Spain, which was to be counted as a null vote.
There were more than 98,000 null votes in the Basque Autonomous Country and more than 15,000 in Navarre. HZ leaders interpreted the high rate of null votes, which was 12% of the total, to mean that most of the nulls were for HZ, since in the previous European elections the null vote was less than 1%.

A somewhat more successful strategy for Batasuna proved to be the one of co-opting existing marginal parties giving the shortest possible notice before an election, so that there was no time for the Spanish Supreme Court to legally assess the lawfulness of this move before the election was held. Thus, for the regional Basque parliamentary election, 2005 the so-far marginal EHAK party announced that they were ready to bring the programs of Batasuna to the Basque regional parliament.
(EHAK had been legally registered in 2002 but had no known activity until 2005). The party could participate in those elections, but then was declared illegal by a court ruling because of ties with Batasuna, which prevented it from contesting the Spanish regional elections, 2007
Spanish regional elections, 2007
A number of elections were held in Spain on 27 May 2007:* municipal elections;* local elections of various types like the elections to the Cabildo on the Canary Islands;* elections to the Assembly of Ceuta and Melilla; and...

.

Then, the same strategy was tried by co-opting Acción Nacionalista Vasca a historical, yet basically inactive Basque party. This time, the Spanish Supreme Court could make a quick assessment of ANV's municipal candidates, which resulted in roughly half of them being banned (because the candidates included people who had previously run for Herri Batasuna or Batasuna) while the other half was ruled lawful and could participate in the elections to be held shortly after the ruling.

Then, in September 2008 the full legal inquiry on the party was finalized, ruling that ANV as a whole was illegal, due to ties with Batasuna-ETA. The Basque regional government, then led by a Basque nationalist coalition of the PNV
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...

 and EA
Eusko Alkartasuna
Eusko Alkartasuna is a Basque nationalist political party operating in Spain and France. The Basque language name means Basque Solidarity and abbreviated as EA. The party describes itself as a Basque nationalist, democratic, popular, progressive and non-denominational party...

 objected to these legal rulings.

As a result of this pressure, for the first time since Herri Batasuna was formed, neither Batasuna nor its proxies could participate in the Basque regional parliament at the time of the Basque parliamentary election, 2009
Basque parliamentary election, 2009
Elections to the Basque regional parliament were held in the Basque Country on 1 March 2009.Shortly before the election, two parties reportedly tied to ETA – D3M and Askatasuna, "Freedom" – were banned by a court ruling from standing in the election.-Results:In stark contrast with the latest...

.

In February 2011, Sortu
Sortu
Sortu is a Basque socialist political party. Founded in February 2011, it is the first political party belonging to the Basque nationalist "abertzale left" that openly rejects ETA's violence....

, a party described as "the new Batasuna", was launched. Unlike predecessor parties, Sortu claimed that it explicitly rejected politically motivated violence, including that of ETA; however it did not condemn the record of ETA nor ask for the disbandment of the armed organization. Sortu was banned in March 2011 from registering as a political party by the Supreme Court of Spain. Some members went on to form another party called Bildu
Bildu
Bildu is a Basque nationalist, separatist and abertzale leftist political coalition active in the Basque Country and Navarre. It was official launched on 3 April 2011...

, which was first banned but then allowed to register.

Reaction

In October 2008 demonstrations were held in Bilbao to protest a Supreme Court decision the month before to ban two Basque independence parties, Basque Nationalist Action (ANV) and Communist Party of Basque Lands (EHAK), because of ties to Batasuna. The protesters had a banner that read "Freedom for Euskal Herria." The protests was organised by left-wing Basque nationalists. ANV president, Kepa Bereziartua, and the former spokesman for Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi
Arnaldo Otegi
Arnaldo Otegi Mondragón is a Basque politician and spokesman for the outlawed Abertzale Basque separatist party Batasuna....

, were present in the march.

Rulings of the European Court of Human Rights

At the time of its outlawing in Spain, Batasuna lawyers took the case to the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

(ECHR). After a long legal inquiry, in July 2009 the ECHR backed the Spanish rulings banning Batasuna and its proxies.

The ECHR said that disbanding the parties was a response "to a pressing social need" given their ties to ETA. "Given the situation in Spain for several years regarding terrorist attacks, these ties can be considered objectively as a threat to democracy," the court said, also adding that these parties "contradicted the concept of a 'democratic society' and presented a major danger to Spain's democracy".

Similarly, when the outlawed Batasuna tried to use Acción Nacionalista Vasca as a proxy to re-organize its ranks, in a different case the ECHR also upheld in 2011 the previous Spanish court rulings which had outlawed ANV, noting that this party had not run by itself in elections since 1977 and that it basically conformed a "fraud" to circumvent the outlawing of Batasuna.

Status in France

Batasuna has a minor presence in the Basque French country, where it runs elections as a civic organization, not like a political party. It has not reached any kind of representation at either local or regional level so far.

In September 2008, 14 people were detained by the French police, 10 of whom were from the French-wing of the party (including their spokesman Xabi Larralde), and charged with links to ETA. They were released four days later, but it remains unclear whether the ongoing investigation would lead to an illegalization process similar to that in Spain.

External links

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