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Post by Maitetxu on Aug 24, 2004 13:23:11 GMT
I will attempt, in this section, to outline the politics of Basque political organisations, eg. ETA, and the relationship of the people of the Basque Country to the mainland Spanish Political organisations.
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Post by octoberlost on Oct 4, 2004 15:31:54 GMT
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Post by michele cryer on Oct 4, 2004 16:40:08 GMT
Thanks Octoberlost...I must apologise for the lack of information in these Basque pages...seems my Basque friend's computer has been 'on the blink' for weeks now, so she has been unable to supply us with anything...
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Post by bryan on Apr 13, 2005 22:50:38 GMT
Basque Elections ~ 2005.
Besides our elections another election campaign is taking place in the Basque region of Spain. A cartoon in the Spanish newspaper El Pais last weekend shows two Basques in berets: One says: “The problem is that Spain doesn’t want to be independent of the Basque country.” To which the other replies: “And half of Euskadi (the Basques), as well.”
Last Weekend - Arnaldo Otegi - the spokesman for the Batasuna (Basque Nationalist Party accused by the Spanish State of being linked to ETA) now banned from standing in the current Basque elections, rejected the idea of their supporters ‘not voting’ and called for a vote for the EHAK (the Communist Party of the Basque country).
This Communist Party (EHAK) was created in September 2002, by left communists becoming a party which provided a new legal support for the pro-ETA position now that Batasuna is illegal. If elected it will be a new political representation which may give ETA (believed to be the military arm of Batasuna) a presence in the new Basque Parliament.
8 years ago with the Pact of Lizarra , when ETA and EH (Euskal Herritarrok) distanced themselves from the historical Herri Batasuna (radical Basque nationalist party) and there was a formation of a political force which had 224,000 votes and 14 seats in the Basque Parliament. A record in its history. But the return of violence from the ETA a year after cut the party vote in half and in 2001 the party got only 143,000 votes and seven seats.
In the Municipal elections of 2003 Batasuna got 130,000 votes, but a year ago in the European elections they obtained only 98,000 votes. Batasuna is believed to be content to be outside the Parliament in Vitoria, but it has put out a peaceful announcement that if intends to maintain an alternative to the mainstream Basque Nationalists (the PNV-EA).
On Monday of this week the leaders of EHAK (the Communist Party of the Basque lands) at their first meeting in San Sebastian, distanced themselves from the Symbols of Batasuna and did not mention ETA. The platform on which they spoke to the meeting was dominated by the colour red.
The 2,000 strong meeting opened to the sound of txalaparta and closed with a timid 'Internationale' and a powerful song of the Eusko Gudariak (hymn of the Basque Soldier), the most recognisable and most listened to song in favour of independence.
The presenter's suggestion at the meeting that they were "messengers without voice", which was an allusion to Batasuna without mentioning it. The spokesperson insisted EHAK persued peace saying: "we are Basques and radical Basque nationalists, and we want to see our people at peace". Otegi (Batasuna) had also declared last weekend that "a vote for EHAK is a vote for a process to resolve the conflict".
Juan Jose Ibarretxe of the mainstream nationalist PNV was criticised for "fixing-up a new pact with Madrid". The PNV, in its turn, has accused the EHAK of proposing a Dictatorship of the Proletariat "in the 21st century".
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Post by michele cryer on Apr 14, 2005 7:28:32 GMT
Bryan...Thanks for supplying us with this current news from the Basque Country...I will forward a copy of this to my friend Maite, and perhaps she will be persuaded to come back to the web forum, when she has access to a computer (at the library only, these days, it seems ) and will post a few more things for us. I believe that there is a Basque man being held in a UK prison for 'possible terrorist links/activity' and my friend is very determined that he be helped, given a voice by somebody...I will try to find out more specific details, Ie. his name, reason for the imprisonment etc. and list them here, but if anyone else is already familiar with the case, perhaps you could post something here about it.
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Post by bryan on Apr 18, 2005 6:42:35 GMT
BASQUE ELECTION LATEST:
Still don't know the result of the Basque election on Sunday for the Basque regional government.
The newspaper El Pais headline ran: 'The shadow od BATASUNA' hung over the end of the campaign on the 17th'.
BATASUNA is now an illegal party for it having represented the interests of the 'terrorist' group ETA. Its replacement is the EHAK (letters standing for communist party of the Basque lands) in this campaign - as BATASUNA called for its supporters to vote EHAK.
The Spanish conservative party - the PP - has called for the EHAK party to be made illegal as well, but the judges have turned this down.
The main Basque national party the PNV-EA is hoping for an absolute majority in these elections. The PNV has a 'Plan Ibarretxe' in which it intends to have independend from Spain. Senor Ibarretxe has declared: 'A vote for EHAK is sterile, it is a mule of the PP (conservatives), the PSE (Spanish Socialist Party), and like BATASUNA (illegal party of ETA)'.
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Post by michele cryer on Apr 18, 2005 11:39:14 GMT
Thanks for this update Bryan...
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Post by bryan on Apr 18, 2005 23:43:22 GMT
BASQUE ELECTIONS ~ 2005.
It's Monday night and I still don't know the result of yesterday's elections in the Basque lands. As Jim Petty said to me tonight all that is on the news is the Papist election of a new pope and stuff about the UK elections.
That these Basque elections might lead to the break up of Spain seems lost on the British media. The PNV-EA coalition party (the main Basque nationalist party) under Juan Jose Ibarretxe has a plan for sovereignty of the Basque lands and is using these elections as a referendum over independence. This 'plan Iberretxe' for Basque sovereignty or independence is the main debate in these elections.
Batasuna - the Basque nationalist ETA party - was made illegal about two years ago. Before these elections the Aukera Guttiak was also banned and an application to have the EHAK (the communist party of the Basque lands) had a denuncia made against it by the PP (Spanish conservative party), but this was not accepted by the judges.
As a writer in El Pais wrote yesterday this whole campaign has been overshadowed by the death of the pope.
The parties are competing for 75 seats. The PNV has called for a vote in favour of the Basque lands 'free association' with Spain: something like the relationship of Gibraltar to the UK. The PNV-EA got 42.7% of the vote in 2001 and won 33 seats. To win an absolute majority the PNV needs at least 38 seats. Batasuna in 2001 won 7 seats and got 10.1% of the vote in 2001. If Ibarretxe and the PNV get 3 of these they will have an abslolute majority.
El Pais yesterday claims the nationalists have concentrated their campaign in the areas of Vitoria, San Sebastian and Bilbao. The Socialist Party - the PSE-EE - which had 13 seats in 2001 is forcast to get 19 seats this time according to the poll CIS. It should become the second largest party in the Basque lands (Euskadi).
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Post by bryan on Apr 19, 2005 23:45:47 GMT
BASQUE ELECTION ~ 2OO5 ~ PNV Nationalists FAIL TO GET ABSOLUTE MAJORITY.
LAST SUNDAY THE PNV/EA NATIONALIST PARTY LOST 4 SEATS: down from 33 to 29 in the 75 seat BASQUE ASSEMBLY. Now a coalition will be necessary.
The party backed by the ultra nationalist BATASUNA the EHAK ( communist party of the Basque lands) got 9 seats. That is two more than BATASUNA got in the last elections in 2001.
The PSE-EE (Socialists) with 19 seats is the second most powerful party in the BASQUE COUNTRY.
The PP convervatives lost 4 seats.
EL PAIS declared yesterday: 'The Basques stay the same'. EL PAIS in an editorial stated: 'The initial evidence of the Basque elections is that Basque society is essential a plural society and can't be reduced the a purely nationalist society as in the claim for sovereignty of the plan IBERRETXE.'
It seems there is equal standing between the nationalists and the non-nationalists in the BASQUE lands: 50-50.
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Post by michele cryer on Apr 20, 2005 7:44:39 GMT
Thank you Brian...if you have anything else to offer in the world of the Basques, in the other topics listed, please feel free to post there too...
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Post by bryan on Apr 25, 2005 7:03:39 GMT
BASQUE ELECTIONS: THE CONSEQUENCES?
Despite having lost 4 seats in the Basque election last week, Ibarretxe the leader of the main Basque nationalist party PNV is calling the result an 'ultima oportnidad' and claiming the support for EHAK (Communist Party of the Basque lands, which had the backing of the illegal Basque nationalist party Batasuna) as a mandate to press ahead with the PNV's claim for sovereignty.
The PNV will go for forming a minority government with EHAK. This they claim is reasonable and would give them a 38 seat coalition in the Basque parliament of 75 seats.
At the same time the Spanish conservative Partido Popular (PP) is calling on Prime Minister Zapatero to make the EHAK party illegal immediately. An informer has told the Guardia Civil that EHAK has had illegal funding from the banned Batasuna party.
We must await these developments with interest as elections are due to take place in the Galician region of Spain on July 19th, 2005. Galicia is an area were the anarchists were strong in the 1930s, but is also the birthplace of General Franco and that of a former leader of the PP Fraga. Added to this there are moves for more say in Catalonia: historic heartland of anarcho-syndicalism in Spain.
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Post by michele cryer on Apr 25, 2005 9:09:28 GMT
This all sounds really interesting Brian, it's a shame my Basque friend isn't able to visit the site more often, she receives newspapers from Bilbao which keep her up to date on events...she really could contribute a great deal to this part of the forum...maybe one day!
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Post by Mitch on Apr 25, 2005 10:55:25 GMT
Be good to get some news, articles, update from Maitetxu. Is she back round these 'ere parts?
She started some d a m n good threads.
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Post by michele cryer on Apr 25, 2005 13:13:02 GMT
She's still around 'ere...but her pc is knackered, she says, so she just visits the library now and again to use their facilities...I think she's afraid of visiting this website cos when she first did so, her pc went funny! She swore she had got a virus from me...LOL.
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Post by bryan on May 31, 2005 23:26:19 GMT
Yesterday, the Spanish paper EL PAIS reported that there had not been a death caused by ETA for 24 months. None-the-less there was an explosion of a car bomb a couple of weeks ago in Madrid and at the weekend Arnaldo Otega, spokesman for BATASUNA (the political arm of ETA) having been arrested in this connection, left prison on bail.
The Basque government condmned this car bomb.
The Spanish government and 7 smaller parties want to open talks with ETA in a plan to overcome terrorism - the 'anti-terrorist strategy', but the PP (Spanish Conservative, some say Fascist, Party) would not join in the process. The PP wants the Socialist PSOE government to make the EHAK illegal before it supports the government's strategy to solve the problem of terrorism.
The EHAK stands for Partido Comunista of the Basque Lands, and it has 9 seats in the new Basque Parliament. It was supported by Batasuna in the recent elections.
There are clearly problems in most of the regions (some would say nations) of Spain. The reports on the Basque lands make this obvious. But in Catalonia there is a demand that half the taxes collected there go to the Catalan regional government in Barcelona. In the Islands of the Canaries yesterday's editorial in El Pais reported 'Crisis canarias' after the CC (Coalition of the Canaries) party broke with the PP after 13 years of cohabitation. Meanwhile, in Galicia in the North west of Spain the regional election campaign is now in full swing.
I wish our Basque friend would come on and tidy up any possible errors in my analysis.
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Post by michele cryer on Jun 2, 2005 19:06:52 GMT
Bryan, I wish she would too, although I'm certain you're doing as good a job as you possibly can here! Well done for reporting so much of this for us.
It is about time things got sorted out with ETA...perhaps in a similar way to the current stance of the IRA?
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Post by bryan on Jun 6, 2005 22:41:12 GMT
Demos against the Dialogue with ETA.
Yesterday, the Spanish press reported hundreds of thousands out to demonstrate in Madrid with the victims of terrorisn against the Spanish government's proposal to open a dialogue with ETA, the Basque nationalist group. The government claimed 200,000 on the march, the organisers claimed 500,000. The Partido Popular (PP) made a special effort to mobilise its leaders and organisations from the regions and bring them to Madrid. The descredited former leader of the PP ~ Aznar ~ was photographed on the march with his wife.
Irena Villa, in a wheelchair was a victim of ETA and she was at the front of the March, as was Laura Jimenez, gravely injured in the 11th, March 2004 bombings. Mariano Rajoy, the current leader of the PP was also in the demo. TYhe leaders of the PP marched 50 metres behind the front of the march.
On the same day in Bilbao several thousands of demonstrators marched in support of Batasuna; the political arm of the militant Basque nationalists ETA. They cried that they would never forget the Basque prisoners.
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Post by bryan on Jun 8, 2005 4:42:04 GMT
On Sunday last, the Partido Popular (PP) in Madrid claimed the socialist Government had to chose between listening to Batasuna or the demonstrators for the victims of terror on the streets in last weekend's demonstration and the 'millions of Spaniards they represent'. The PP wants no dialogue with what it sees to be the representatives of terrorism in the Basque lands.
In a press conference yesterday, the PP's secretary of communication, Gabriel Elorriage, accused President Zapatero of being insensitive to the clamour of millions of persons. President Zapatero, whose father was a republican soldier in the Spanish Civil War, told a meeting in the city of Vigo, in the Basque region, that he was listening 'with respect' to the victims of terror.
Seven parties in the Cortes (Spanish parliament) have call for negotiations with Batasuna: only the PP has stood aside. On Sunday, the ERC (Catalan Republican Nationalists), the PNV (moderate Basque Nationalists) and IU (United Left formerly the Communist Party) call for negotiations and suggested the matter be refered to the Congress.
Jose Puig (MP/ deputy for ERC) said that withut a dialogue it would be impossible to solve the problem of terrorism. He said: 'We have to talk, because if we don't we'll be paralysed and like that won't be able to regulate nothing'.
Meanwhile in San Sebastian, all the Basque Parties held a commemoration in memory of the veteran Basque fighter for freedom Jon Idigoras who died at 69.
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Post by michele cryer on Jun 10, 2005 3:11:06 GMT
. Jose Puig (MP/ deputy for ERC) said that withut a dialogue it would be impossible to solve the problem of terrorism. He said: 'We have to talk, because if we don't we'll be paralysed and like that won't be able to regulate nothing'. Meanwhile in San Sebastian, all the Basque Parties held a commemoration in memory of the veteran Basque fighter for freedom Jon Idigoras who died at 69. Thanks for the above Bryan...I think I tend to agree with Jose Puig regarding the Spanish government and ETA...there comes a time when everyone concerned, relatives of and victims too, must come together and discuss the basic issues that are troubling the ETA supporters, and make some sort of concensus to stop the battles...
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