Spain considers banning separatists' new political party

[Strengthandhonour]

Spain considers banning separatists' new political party


MADRID: Amid intensifying controversy over its handling of the Basque separatist group ETA, Spain's Socialist government may move to ban a new political party founded by members of Batasuna, the separatist group's outlawed political wing.
The government's decision on the new party was seen as a test of Prime Minster José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's political will as he confronts criticism, led by the rightist opposition Popular Party, over what critics view as his soft stance on ETA. It also comes as a bitter split has emerged between the right and the left over anti-terrorism policy and Zapatero's social and political reforms.
"The political climate in Spain is probably more highly charged now than it has been at any time since the transition to democracy," said David Mathieson, a political analyst at Fride, a Madrid-based research institute, referring to the period that followed the end of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship in 1975.
Members of Batasuna on Tuesday filed papers with the Interior Ministry seeking to establish a new party, Abertzale Sozialisten Batasuna, or Patriotic Socialist Union, and field candidates in municipal elections in May. Batasuna was banned in 2003 because of its links with ETA, and the government says it may become legal again only by renouncing violence.
Arnaldo Otegi, Batasuna's leader, said at a press conference Wednesday that the new party "opened the door for the final and democratic resolution of the political conflict." But Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the interior minister, said the government was scrutinizing papers filed by the founders of the new party and had reason to question the party's legality. The ministry has 20 days to make a decision.
"Nobody is going to run in the upcoming municipal elections," Zapatero said during a televised interview with members of the public Tuesday night, adding "unless they observe the political parties law to the letter," referring to a law that bans political parties with a connection to illegal militant groups.
The government has been struggling to regain the political initiative since an ETA bomb attack on Dec. 30 at Madrid Barajas International Airport killed two people and ended a nine-month old peace process on which Zapatero had staked his political credibility.
But it has faced a continuous campaign of criticism from the Popular Party, which on March 10 mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to protest against the government's decision to grant house arrest to Iñaki de Juana Chaos, a former ETA operative convicted of killing 25 people, who was on a hunger strike. Anger levels among conservatives rose once again last week when a prosecutor dropped charges of endorsing terrorism against Otegi, the Batasuna leader.
The Spanish police arrested eight people in an operation against ETA, The Associated Press reported Wednesday from Madrid, citing the Interior Ministry.
The eight were arrested in the northern Basque provinces of Guipúzcoa and Álava and in the neighboring region of Navarra, according to a ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity as his post forbids him to be publicly identified.



source: Spain considers banning separatists\' new political party - Print Version - International Herald Tribune