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Spain suspends 2 Basque parties

Spanish Judge Bars 2 Basque Pro-Independence Parties From Running in Election

DANIEL WOOLLS

AP News

Feb 08, 2008

A Spanish judge on Friday barred two Basque pro-independence parties from running in general elections next month, suspending their activities for three years.

Judge Baltasar Garzon of the National Court accused the two parties — Basque Nationalist Action and the Communist Party of the Basque Lands — of being linked to Batasuna, the outlawed political wing of the armed separatist group ETA.

A pre-dawn bomb blast blamed on ETA caused serious damage to a courthouse in the Basque town of Bergara. No one was injured.

Garzon's ruling ordered authorities to shut down the parties' offices, freeze their bank accounts and — critically — cut off funding they receive from the government. All parties with seats in Spain's national, regional or local legislatures receive subsidies.

As Batasuna was declared illegal in 2003 and cannot field candidates, the ruling means no militant pro-independence Basque party will be represented in the March 9 voting for the Spanish Parliament.
The Supreme Court has been presented with separate lawsuits from Spanish prosecutors asking it to outlaw these two parties altogether.
Batasuna was outlawed on grounds that it was part of ETA, which has been fighting for an independent Basque state since the late 1960s. The ban also aimed to cut off ETA funding and propaganda.

To get around it, Batasuna resurrected two little-known parties and had them field pro-independence candidates.

The Communist Party of the Basque Lands won nine seats in the 75-member Basque regional parliament in 2005.

Basque Nationalist Action took part in municipal elections last year. Though half its candidates were barred over alleged links to Batasuna, those remaining won 337 seats in towns and villages in the Basque region, and 100 more in neighboring Navarra.

The Justice Ministry said last week that, since those two sets of elections, ETA and Batasuna have taken over the two smaller parties, "appropriating their structure and using them ... to obtain political cover and an institutional presence." ETA and Batasuna have also used them as a source of financing, it added.


Source: AP News

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